Regina Butler
A 49-year-old San Jose woman was convicted by a jury this week of the first-degree murder of a mentally-disabled man. After stabbing him 34 times, Regina Butler hid the man’s body under a mattress with a giant teddy bear on top.
He was discovered a month later.
Butler faces life in prison, when she is sentenced after a trial to prove her prior strike convictions.
“It is tragic that this humble man became a victim of such senseless violence,” said prosecutor Charles Huang. “We are pleased that the jury held his killer accountable and can only hope that their verdict will give some solace for those who were close to him.”
Butler fatally stabbed the man on February 7, 2013 in a senior living facility on Ironwood Drive.
Evidence showed that the man was on the verge of being evicted because he had let Butler stay at his home for a lengthy period. She fled in the victim’s car, but was not ultimately arrested for the murder until March 7, 2013.
That day, the victim’s step-granddaughter called police to say she had discovered the body – and that Butler had come back.
Evidence showed that Butler had tried to mask the odor of the man’s body by laying out random raw chicken parts.
The jury, which had been in trial since November 16 deliberated for an hour, found that the evidence conclusively proved that Butler was the one who had killed the victim.
