Hog hunter admits to count of murder

Prison sentence 40 years in plea deal

Christopher Butler
Christopher Butler

A Eureka Springs man pleaded guilty Thursday to second-degree murder after shooting a man he said had trespassed on his hog-hunting territory.

Christopher Kevin Butler, 44, was initially charged with first-degree murder and tampering with evidence in the Feb. 19, 2016, shooting death of John Catlin Keck, 30, also of Eureka Springs. Butler pleaded innocent to those charges.

Butler was scheduled to stand trial Monday and Tuesday in Eureka Springs but reached a plea agreement with Carroll County prosecutor Tony Rogers.

Butler pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and committing a terroristic act. He was sentenced to 40 years in prison, with 19 years suspended, according to the agreement. He also was given credit for the 397 days he spent in the Carroll County jail in Berryville.

Butler told police he shot Keck in self-defense, believing that Keck had a gun. Then Butler planted a pistol in his own Jeep near Keck's body, according to an affidavit of probable cause from Jerry Reddick, an investigator with the Carroll County sheriff's office.

"I was afraid if that old boy didn't have a gun, then I'd be charged for murder," Butler told police.

Butler's public defender, Joseph Tobler, filed a motion to suppress his client's comments to police before the case went to trial, but Carroll County Circuit Judge Scott Jackson denied that request.

The shooting occurred in a rural area about 2 miles north of Eureka Springs. Butler told police that he didn't know Keck.

Butler told police that he hunted for hogs about five nights a week, and he had gone hunting the night of Feb. 19, 2016, because some friends had asked him to obtain three hogs for them. Butler told investigators that he parked his white two-door Jeep blocking a "wallow road" like he usually did and set off on foot in search of hogs.

But Dustin Anderson, a hog-hunting friend of Butler's, told police that Butler called him that night, saying there was a trespasser on the hunting property. Butler told Anderson that he was going to block the road with his Jeep and wait in the bushes, according to the affidavit. Butler had permission to hunt on the property, but he didn't own the land.

Butler was wearing a ghillie shirt and camouflage clothing, and was armed with an AR-15-style rifle, which isn't an unusual gun for hunting feral hogs in the area, said Rogers.

From the bushes, Butler saw the headlights of a gray Dodge Dakota pickup approaching, according to the affidavit. Butler told police that he heard the pickup driver rev the engine and shout obscenities when he saw that the wallow road was blocked.

When Keck got out of the pickup and into Butler's Jeep to move it, the two men exchanged words, then Butler fired three shots, according to the affidavit. Rogers said two shots hit Keck -- one doing little damage, and the other one fatal.

The fatal shot hit Keck in the back, severed his spinal column, went through an aorta and did extensive damage to his heart, said Rogers.

Butler told police that he normally hunts with R.I.P. ammunition, which is meant to fragment upon impact, doing more damage to the 400-pound hogs he encounters in the woods. Made by G2 Research, R.I.P. stands for radically invasive projectile. Rogers said Keck was shot with R.I.P. ammunition.

After the shooting, Butler "threw" a P90 Ruger .45-caliber pistol into the floorboard of the Jeep, according to the affidavit.

Butler said he thought he heard Keck "jack" a round of ammunition into the chamber of a pistol, then point the gun in his direction, according to the affidavit.

"I felt like if I didn't pull the trigger, I was going to die," Butler told police.

Butler called the Carroll County sheriff's office and Eureka Springs Police Department to report the shooting, according to the affidavit.

NW News on 03/24/2017

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