LEXINGTON COUNTY, S.C. — A South Carolina man learned, this week, that he will spend decades in prison for a crime that nearly cost two people their lives in 2018.
Eleventh Judicial Circuit Solicitor S.R. Hubbard III released a statement on Friday announcing that 22-year-old Isaiah Deshaun Butler would be spending the next 28 years in prison with no chance of parole.
The sentence stems from counts of attempted murder and assault and battery of a high and aggravated nature - and it only took about 40 minutes for the jury to come back with the guilty verdict for both.
Prosecutors said it all began on August 30, 2018, when the occupant of a black Range Rover opened fire into a crowd in the parking lot of Riverbend Apartments in West Columbia. In the process, he struck a mother multiple times in the chest and arm and her daughter in the head. Both were hospitalized but survived.
Further investigation revealed that Butler's girlfriend and her sibling were in a fight over a cell phone. The daughter who would eventually be shot was a friend of the siblings and attempted to break up the fight. But, somehow, Butler then ended up in an argument with the daughter.
Prosecutors said that Butler eventually took the phone and wouldn't give it back to his girlfriend's sibling. He then threatened to shoot the daughter and others during the argument and the threats were reported to the police.
Witnesses would later testify to seeing Butler driving a black Range Rover the day of the shooting. Prosecutors said that, when police arrived, they also saw Butler and the black SUV. However, he left before they realized he was connected to the incident. And he still had the phone from earlier.
The shooting happened just after 9 p.m. that night after the mother came to pick up her daughter. Witnesses testified that they saw the Range Rover drive into the complex and open fire into the crowd - which included an infant child - as they waited for Butler to return with the phone. The mother and daughter were both hit.
Prosecutors said Butler took the stand in his own defense, denying he had a black Range Rover and claiming that he had an alibi - or that he was somewhere else at the time.
However, evidence, eyewitness testimony, and phone location records placed him at the scene. Photos also showed the Range Rover parked in his driveway.
Butler will now serve a 28-year sentence for attempted murder concurrently with a 20-year sentence for assault and battery of a high and aggravated nature. South Carolina law classifies both crimes as violent offenses meaning parol will not be an option.
