La Plata, MD – Marvin Troy Butler, 38 of District Heights, avoided a jury trial by accepting a plea agreement in Charles County Circuit Court Tuesday, Feb. 24 before Judge Amy J. Bragunier on burglary first degree charges and violation of a protection order.
He also avoided jail time, as Bragunier sentenced Butler to three years plus 90 days on the two charges, suspending all but two days for time already served and tacked on five years of supervised probation.
Bragunier told him he had four years and nine months of backup time should he not adhere to the conditions of his probation, from these and prior cases.
Charles County Assistant State’s Attorney Katrine H. Bakhtiary told the court Butler’s charges stemmed from an “on again, off again” relationship between himself and a former girlfriend, saying Butler moved into the woman’s home in 2009 but did not contribute to the purchase of the home or the bills while living there.
The relationship eventually deteriorated and Butler took his belongings out of the house except for one bag of clothes.
“She decided she was done with the relationship,” Bakhtiary said. “She changed the locks on the door because she felt he still had a key.”
The victim began receiving calls from Butler, she said.
“She did not want to see the defendant, and it was determined on March 17 that his father would get his belongings,” Bakhtiary stated.
On that date, as the victim was coming into her neighborhood, she saw her dog was out of the cage she had placed him in that morning. Thinking someone had broken into her house, Bakhtiary noted, she called the Charles County Sheriff’s Office. They discovered the lock to the front door was broken.
As officers walked her through her house, she found several purses in her bedroom that had been dumped out and jewelry removed. A flat screen television in the residence was also taken from the residence.
“Mr. Butler called the victim and she asked him about the items and he told her, ‘You can’t put me out like that,’ ” Bakhtiary said.
Butler told the court that some of the state’s testimony was flawed.
“It wasn’t like she said,” Butler stated. “I made a down payment on the house. The broken lock on the front door, this happened months before she said it did.”
“It sounds like it was a toxic relationship,” Bragunier said as she handed down her sentence. “It’s over with this plea agreement.”
She told Butler to have no contact with the victim whatsoever and said he would need to report to the parole and probation office in Waldorf and she would recommend transferring his probation to the Prince George’s County office where he resides.
Contact Joseph Norris at joe.norris@thebaynet.com