Butler v. State

Following a jury trial, Marquce Butler appeals his convictions for felony murder and conspiracy to commit aggravated sodomy,1 contending, among other things, that the evidence was insufficient to support the verdict. For the reasons set forth below, we affirm. 1. Viewed in the light most favorable to the verdict, the record shows that, around midnight on February 21, 2004, a guard at the Lee Arrendale State Prison in Alto, Georgia, was alerted to a medical emergency in Butler’s jail cell. Once there, the guard found the window on the cell door obstructed, and, when the obstruction was removed, the guard could see Butler and a second inmate, Maurice Tobler, seated on the bed. The guard also saw a third inmate, Wayne Boatwright, lying on the floor, slumped against a radiator, and apparently unconscious. The presence of other inmates in Butler’s cell violated internal prison policies.

After entering the cell and handcuffing Butler and Tobler, the guard discovered that Boatwright was not breathing, had no pulse, and had blood running from his nose. At that point the guard made the comment that, if Butler and Tobler had meant to kill Boatwright, they had done a good job. Tobler immediately and voluntarily replied, “we didn’t mean to kill him.” Attempts to revive Boatwright were unsuccessful, and he died at the scene.