Execution date set for convicted murderer

Published 9:15 am Tuesday, April 17, 2018

MILLEDGEVILLE, Ga. — Ocmulgee Judicial Circuit District Attorney Stephen A. Bradley remembers the execution-style shotgun murder of Donovan Corey Parks, of Milledgeville, like it was yesterday.

“It is hard to imagine a more horrible, senseless killing than this one,” Bradley told The Union-Recorder after he learned Monday that one of the men convicted in the case, Robert Earl Butts Jr. is set to be executed May 3 at the Georgia Diagnostic and Classification Center near Jackson. “Donovan Cory Parks was, by all accounts, a fine, kind young man.”

At the time of his murder, Parks worked full-time as a state corrections officer.

Parks’ kindness is what led to him being shot to death, Bradley recalled.

“He was killed because he was willing to be kind to someone he knew from school, Robert Earl Butts Jr.,” Bradley said. “Parks came from a wonderful, warm family that was devastated by his murder. I have spoken to the family. They are pleased and relieved that the long appeals process is finally coming to an end. They are ready to see justice done.”

Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr announced Monday that Butts is scheduled to be executed by lethal injection at 7 p.m. May 3. An order was filed in Baldwin County Superior Court in Milledgeville setting a seven-day window in which the execution may occur, beginning at noon May 3, and ending seven days later at noon May 10

“Butts has concluded his direct appeal proceedings and his state and federal habeas corpus proceedings,” according to a press release from Carr’s office in Atlanta.

The case of co-defendant Marion Wilson Jr. remains in the Eleventh Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals, according to Bradley.

The current prosecutor of the eight-county judicial circuit said Parks had gone to church and was on his way home when he stopped by Walmart. 

“At Walmart, Butts, along with his co-defendant, Wilson, asked Parks for a ride,” Bradley told the newspaper. “They forced Mr. Parks to stop his car in the middle of Felton Drive, where they killed him. Butts and Wilson took the car, ultimately burning it in an attempt to conceal the crime. The evidence showed that the murder was a gang ritual, intended to gain rank within the gang.”

A search of Butts’ home by authorities later turned up what Bradley described as a significant amount of gang graffiti and literature.

“At a time when gang violence is again on the rise, we can only hope that any young person who may be enticed into the gangland culture, and ultimately into such inexplicable crimes, will see this case and remember both the risk to their future and the very personal costs to the victims,” Bradley said.

During the series of crimes and subsequently the murder trials that followed, Bradley was serving as chief assistant district attorney under former District Attorney Fredric Bright. The well-known prosecutors vigorously prosecuted the two men convicted of the heinous crimes in separate trials in Baldwin County Superior Court. Juries convicted both men on charges of malice murder, felony murder, armed robbery, hijacking a motor vehicle, possession of a firearm during the commission of a crime, and possession of a sawed-off shotgun.

Butts’ conviction and death sentence were handed down Nov. 21,1998, court records show.

According to the Georgia Supreme Court summary of the case, evidence at Butts’ murder trial revealed that he and Wilson drove to the Milledgeville Walmart and began searching for a victim.

“Butts entered the store wearing a coat, under which he likely concealed the murder weapon,” according to the summary of the case. “A witness observed Butts and Wilson standing behind Donovan Corey Parks in a checkout line. The cashier for that checkout line also remembered Butts being in her line. The store’s receipts showed that Butts purchased a pack of chewing gum immediately after Parks made his purchase of pet supplies.”

A witness later overheard Butts asking Parks for a ride.

The victim agreed to provide Butts and Wilson a ride from the store. But first, Parks had to make room for the riders. Testimony revealed that Butts sat in the front passenger seat, while Wilson sat in the seat directly behind Parks.

“According to a witness to whom Butts confessed, Butts revealed the shotgun a short distance away and Parks was ordered to stop the automobile,” according to the court summary. “Wilson dragged Parks out of the automobile by his tie and ordered him to lie down on the pavement. Butts then fired one fatal shot to the back of Parks’ head with the shotgun. Witnesses nearby heard the shot, believing it to be a backfiring vehicle.”

Following the cold-blooded murder, Butts and Wilson drove to a service station in Gray, located in neighboring Jones County, where they put gasoline in Parks’ vehicle and where Wilson was caught on a business surveillance camera.

“Butts and Wilson then drove to Atlanta in an unsuccessful attempt to exchange Parks’ automobile for money at a chop-shop,” according to the court’s summary of the case. “The pair purchased two cans of gasoline, drove to a remote location in Macon and set fire to Parks’ automobile. They then walked to a nearby public phone where Butts called his uncle and arranged a ride for himself and Wilson back to the Walmart to retrieve Butts’ automobile.”

Little did Butts and Wilson know at the time, but detectives with the Baldwin County Sheriff’s Office already had recorded the license plate numbers of the vehicles in the Walmart parking lot and one of the automobiles turned out to belong to Butts.

A shotgun loaded with an uncommon type of ammunition was later found under Wilson’s bed during a search. And a witness testified that Butts had given the weapon to Wilson to hold for him on a temporary basis.

Two men, who formerly had been Butts’ cellmates while he was incarcerated, testified that he had admitted to them that he was the “triggerman” in the murder.

After Butts was convicted of the crimes Nov. 21, 1998, he filed a motion for a new trial, but it was denied Aug. 18, 1999.

Butts later filed an appeal with the Georgia Supreme Court.

On Feb. 25, 2000, the Georgia Supreme Court remanded the case back to the trial court in Baldwin County for a hearing on whether or not Butts was denied effective legal assistance by an attorney. A hearing was held Aug. 22, 2000, and Oct. 4, 2000, and the trial court entered an order denying Butts’ claims of ineffective assistance of counsel.

Once again, Butts filed an appeal to the Georgia Supreme Court.

On that occasion, the court on April 30, 2001, unanimously affirmed Butts’ convictions and death sentence. The court subsequently denied Butts’ request to appeal on Jan. 7, 2002.

Butts continued pressing forward, apparently hoping for different results, which continued to elude him.

On Aug. 30, 2002, Butts filed for a writ of habeas corpus in Butts County Superior Court in Jackson. During an evidentiality hearing, held Sept. 11-13, 2007, the state habeas corpus court entered an order denying Butts such relief. The Georgia Supreme Court denied Butts’ appeal Jan. 22, 2013.

But Butts wasn’t finished.

He filed a petition for a writ of habeas corpus in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Georgia in Macon on May 31, 2013. Then on Oct. 16, 2015, the district court denied Butts’ federal habeas corpus relief.

The Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed the district court’s denial of relief on March 9, 2017. It was followed by a denial by the U.S. Supreme Court on Jan. 22, 2018.