Teen Pleads Guilty in Foster Father's Slaying

A 16-year-old boy on Friday admitted to fatally stabbing his foster father inside the victim's Blackwood home in July.

The teen, who also pleaded guilty on Friday to a carjacking at Blackwood's on May 29, faces 30 years in state prison when he is sentenced in February.

Demetrius Minor waived his right to challenge the Camden County Prosecutor's Office request to try him as an adult during a brief appearance in Family Court Judge Anthony Pugliese's courtroom in the Camden County Hall of Justice Friday morning.

Minor then entered a guilty plea before Superior Court Judge Samuel Natal after waiving his rights to indictment by a grand jury and trials by jury on each count.

Minor pleaded guilty to first-degree aggravated manslaughter and first-degree carjacking. The plea agreement would result in the 16-year-old receiving a 30-year prison sentence, of which he would have to serve 85 percent before being eligible for parole.

A stoic Minor answered Pugliese's and Natal's questions mostly with "yes" and "no" answers. He avoided eye contact with roughly 20 relatives of Butts, including the victim's wife, Wanda Broach-Butts, who attended Friday's hearings.

A relative found 69-year-old Theotis Butts stabbed to death inside his Hemlock Drive home the night of July 11.

Minor, whom authorities had not publicly identified before Friday due to his juvenile status, was arrested in Bronx, NY, by U.S. Marshals on July 12.

The prosecutor's office made application on Aug. 5 to try Minor as an adult.

The victim's wife said after the hearings that she was satisfied witht the outcome of the case.

"I'm glad we made some decisions today," Broach-Butts said. "If it was up to me, it would be longer years (in prison for Minor), but it is what it is. I'm glad justice was served. ... I'm happy with it."

Natal scheduled sentencing for Feb. 17, 2012. The judge will review a pre-sentence report before signing off on the plea deal.

The state was represented by Camden County Prosecutor's Office Assistant Prosecutor Tim Chatten, section chief of the office's juvenile unit.

Minor was represented by public defenders Dee Stroupe at the juvenile hearing and Brad Wertheimer at the criminal court hearing.

(Check back with Gloucester Township Patch on Saturday morning for a full report on the case.)