Donzell Butler pleaded guilty to unarmed voluntary manslaughter and assault with significant bodily injury Friday in the stabbing death of Charles Anthony Scott Jr.
He faces up to 30 years in prison.
Scott and others were leaving a carry-out restaurant on East Capitol Street on July 7, 2012, plea documents say, when his group passed and almost ran into Butler on the sidewalk. Butler then followed Scott onto Ames Street Northeast, according to witnesses.
A man in Scott’s group, Kevin Reeves, stopped and spoke to Butler, saying “Are y’all good?” Butler responded, “Yeah, your man good?”
The discussion sparked an altercation in which Butler stabbed Scott and Reeves multiple times, according to a factual proffer in the plea agreement.
Scott later died from multiple stab wounds at the hospital. Reeves recovered and was released from the hospital shortly after.
Butler was originally charged with second-degree murder, and Scott’s mother questioned the decision to charge him with unarmed voluntary manslaughter.
“There is certainly a factual basis behind this guilty plea,” said Judge Ramsey Johnson. The sentencing is scheduled for March 21, 2014.
The full plea agreement is embedded below:
