FORT SMITH -- A 22-year-old Fort Smith man was sentenced Tuesday to two life prison terms without parole after pleading guilty to capital-murder charges for the stabbing death of his pregnant girlfriend last summer.
The attorney for Douglas David True told Sebastian County Circuit Judge Stephen Tabor his client had wanted to plead guilty to the charges all along.
"We have discussed this for six months now and this is the outcome my client wanted and what his parents felt was the right thing to do," Assistant Public Defender Cash Haaser said.
True was accused in the slashing death of Briana Nicole Butler, 22, who was 27 weeks pregnant at the time of her death on July 20. Prosecuting Attorney Dan Shue told Tabor the fetus was viable and was alive until his mother died.
"Our sweet Alexander," Butler's mother Rhonda Carter said in a victim impact statement read for her during the sentencing hearing Tuesday. Butler "was so excited about a boy and we never ever got the chance to meet our sweet grandson."
Her statement, directed at True, said she lives in pain every day over the loss of her daughter and the pleasures of being with her.
"I will never hear my daughter's laughter or 'I love you,' or feel her hug and kiss me on the cheek. You stole that from me."
Butler's father, Kenny Seyer, read in his statement, sometimes halting to fight back tears, that he had been estranged from his daughter for two years but was in Fort Smith that weekend to revive their relationship when she was killed.
He said no parent should ever have to lose a child. That was why he consented to allow True to enter a plea deal with the prosecutor's office.
"So your parents can still see their child, although it probably feels like they are losing someone, too," Seyer said.
According to police reports, True called 911 on the morning of July 20 and told a dispatcher he needed an officer because he had done something bad. When an officer arrived, he told him he had killed his girlfriend.
Later in an interview with detectives, True said he remembered getting into an argument with Butler that turned physical but didn't remember killing her because he was drunk. He said he got up sometime during the night and found Butler's blood-soaked body in the bathroom, then went back to the sofa and passed out.
But statements from neighbors said they spoke with True or saw him outside his apartment at 2926 S. 66th St. about 11:30 p.m. July 19 and again about 4 a.m. July 20. Statements said he was "chatty" to the point of being annoying but they didn't mention him appearing drunk.
Police officer Anthony Parkinson's report of his initial examination of Butler's body in the apartment said her left eye was swollen almost shut, her lip was swollen and bruised, and there was bruising on the left side of her face.
Parkinson's report stated he was shocked by her wounds. He said there were large cuts on her throat and neck, several cuts on her chest and shoulder, and cuts on her stomach, including one long cut from her stomach to her genitals.
Shue told Tabor during the hearing that Butler had suffered 11 knife wounds.
NW News on 12/18/2014