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Man gets 15 years for knife attack

He loses a courtroom gamble after he rejects an offer of five years in prison.

By JAMAL THALJI
Published December 21, 2006

NEW PORT RICHEY - John Francis Butler was a family man. He was a professional man. He was an engineer for Microsoft. He is a military veteran.

"He has a priority of God, family and country," said old friend Richard Dawson.

That man seemed a far cry from the bedraggled, shackled man in court Wednesday.

That's because Butler is also a troubled man, laid low by alcohol abuse and mental illness.

In court, he was a gambling man. He turned down five years in prison, hoping his plight would win him leniency on an attempted murder charge.

"I'm very sorry for what happened," Butler told Circuit Judge Joe Bulone.

"I just want a chance."

What he got is 15 years in prison. And here is why:

The 52-year-old's downward spiral started with the deaths of his second wife and father, Assistant Public Defender Kemba Johnson Lewis told the court. The descent was fueled by a family history of mental illness, she said.

"I've been trying to understand my own behavior these past months," Butler wrote in a letter read aloud to the judge.

Two psychiatrists testified about what could lead a man with just a handful of traffic and minor offenses in Washington and Florida to threaten a man's life in June 2005 - and then try to take it.

Butler came to believe that Douglas Edmonds had assaulted his sister - an illusion - and authorities say he broke a window in Edmonds' New Port Richey home.

Butler, a knife in each hand, jumped on the victim's bed and slashed and stabbed him while Edmonds was on the phone to 911. Edmonds had to grab the knife to keep it from cutting him deeper. Butler ran when the sirens arrived.

"He was sane," Dr. Michael Greenberg testified, "but mentally ill."

Butler has been diagnosed and treated for several disorders, including depression, bipolar disorder and post-traumatic stress disorder. It cost him his job at Microsoft. Now he needs extensive counseling "so he can control his own depression, his own anger, his own anxiety. ... He needs some heavyweight psychotherapy," Greenberg said.

Butler's lawyer said he even used to act paranoid around her. While he would get some counseling in prison, the defense argued the system could not give him the help he needs.

He has already had enough help, Assistant State Attorney Eva Vergos replied, and failed each time. She said Butler had 18 alcoholic drinks the day of the attack.

"This defendant has been treated and treated and treated 14 times over the last four years," she said. "He is clearly not amenable to further treatment."

And now it is the victim who needs counseling, too.

Times researcher Cathy Wos contributed to this report. Jamal Thalji can be reached at thalji@sptimes.com or 727 869-6236.

[Last modified December 21, 2006, 06:19:15]