On Thursday, March 23, Eureka Springs resident Christopher Kevin Butler, 44, was sentenced to 21 years in the Arkansas Department of Corrections for murder in the second degree in the shooting death of John Caitlin Keck, 30, on the night of Feb. 19, 2016.
According to court documents, Butler had been hog hunting north of Eureka Springs, as he often did, when he saw a vehicle speeding up “the wallow road” west of Hwy. 23. Butler’s Jeep blocked the road, and Butler claimed he heard two males talking. He said one of them cursed at him and threatened to push his vehicle out of the way. One of them got into Butler’s vehicle. Words were exchanged, and Butler said he heard someone “jack a round,” meaning engage a bullet in a weapon. He later told interrogators, “I felt like if I didn’t pull the trigger I was going to die.”
He fired three times. Court documents indicate one shot hit near the door on the driver’s side of the vehicle and two went through the glass in the rear passenger compartment. The deceased had wounds in his left side and back.
Butler called Carroll County Sheriff’s Office and the Eureka Springs Police Department to report the incident. He also called his hog-hunting friend Dustin Anderson, and according to Anderson’s statement, asked him to bring a pistol to the scene. Though he denied it several times to interrogators before finally admitting it, Butler grabbed the pistol from Anderson and told him to go direct authorities to their location. Butler then placed the weapon near Keck’s body in the Jeep. In his interrogation, he said planted the gun because he was afraid he would be accused of murder if Keck were unarmed.
Originally, Carroll County Prosecutor Tony Rogers had pursued charges of First Degree murder, a Class Y felony; tampering with evidence, a Class D felony; and sentencing enhancement pursuant to Butler’s use of a firearm in the commission of a crime. As a result of a plea agreement, Butler pleaded guilty to murder in the second degree, and to committing a terroristic act by shooting a firearm into a vehicle occupied by Keck. The sentence for this act was 40 years of which 19 years were suspended with the remaining 21 years to run concurrent with the first sentence.
Butler was given credit for 397 days served in the Carroll County Correctional Facility.
According to Deputy Prosecutor Craig Parker, ADC will determine where Butler serves his sentence during the intake interview. Butler will be eligible for parole once he serves half of his 21-year sentence minus time for good behavior as determined by ADC.