Police: Cayuga Heights slaying defendant ranted about God

By Raymond Drumsta

ITHACA -- Clad in a white T-shirt, blue gym shorts and bloody socks, Ian Butler was holding a large wooden cross and rambling about God the morning his mother Carol Butler was beaten to death, according to court papers.

"God made me do it," Ian muttered, according to police and deputies who responded to Carol Butler's Cayuga Heights home in the early morning hours of Sept. 23. "I have to get the evil out of the house."

They found Carol's body nearby, and Ian later told state police that he saw his friends who were dancers in the house, that they were trying to kill him, that he swung at them but punched his mother instead, continued to punch her, threw her down the stairs and kicked her repeatedly, court papers said.

Though he's confined to a central New York mental-health facility and charged with second-degree murder in the death of his mother, it's not clear whether Butler will be found competent to stand trial. Two Tompkins County psychiatrists sent Butler to the facility after "they determined he was in immediate need of psychiatric care," said his attorney Scott Miller.

"Competency to stand trial takes much longer to determine," Miller said. Generally speaking, a defendant has to be competent for all stages of the legal proceedings, including the arraignment, the pre-trial hearings and jury selection, he stressed.

The competency evaluation is not done yet, Tompkins County District Attorney Gwen Wilkinson said.

"Until we get the results of the competency evaluation, it's too early to tell where this case is going," she said.

Ian, 29, is accused of killing Carol, 53, by "repeatedly striking her and kicking her about the head and torso" in her home at 522 Cayuga Heights Road about 2 a.m. on Sept. 23, court papers said. A Cayuga Heights police officer and a Tompkins County sheriff's deputy responded to a report of a possible death in the home about 2:13 a.m., law-enforcement officials said.

Many lights were on in the house, and they saw Joseph Butler -- Ian's teenage brother -- upset and speaking on a cell phone just inside the front door, the papers said. Joseph opened the door and motioned them inside, but Ian approached the front door from a hallway to the left of the entry area. The cross he was holding measured three feet by two feet, and he had a framed passage of scripture in his other hand.

When Ian did not comply with their orders to stop and drop the cross and frame, the officer drew his sidearm and the deputy aimed a stun gun at Ian. Joseph stepped between them and said, "Ian doesn't know what he's doing," the deputy reported.

Ian complied after another order and was taken into custody, the papers said. Police and deputies saw Carol Butler face up in the hallway Ian had exited, and it appeared as though her face had been badly beaten. She was pronounced dead by emergency medical personnel a little while later.

"God is the light," Ian repeated as he was taken to the state police barracks, the documents said, and investigators found blood on the floor near Carol's body, blood and holes in the wall next to it, what appeared to be hairs in one of the holes and bloody footprints on the living room carpet nearby. The investigators obtained a search warrant and gathered a number of items, including the blood evidence, Ian's medical records, the cross and the framed scripture.

Ian also told state police investigators he was on the anti-seizure medication Tegretol, and that he saw his mother using the computer to send messages to his friend Ritchie in New York City, court papers said. She didn't need to do that, Ian told investigators, because she already had a husband.

At Ian's second arraignment in the Village of Cayuga Heights Court that evening, Miller said family members had told him about Ian and Carol Butler's attempt to have him admitted to Cayuga Medical Center, that he has a long history of mental illness, that he's hallucinating and that the Tegretol he was taking was causing him problems. Miller later said Ian was having a psychotic episode when he and Carol tried unsuccessfully to have him admitted to the hospital about 12 hours before she was found dead, and that they believe he was having a psychotic episode during the alleged incidents in the home. Hospital officials have said butler left Cayuga Medical before his evaluation was completed.

The entire Butler family is still mourning Carol and supporting Ian, Miller said Thursday, and Ian won't be returning to court until he's competent.

"He has to be able to participate in the proceedings in a meaningful fashion," Miller said. He's hoping the mental-health facility can adjust Ian's medications to make him competent, he added.

"That way, we can move forward and obtain a just resolution for all interested parties -- the state, Ian and his entire family."