Widow Surrounded by Family as Former Foster Son Pleads Guilty to Killing Husband

Theotis Butts was the kind of guy who always wanted to lend a helping hand.

Even when his doctor told the Blackwood retiree that helping out was detrimental to his own health.

That's why family members find it so hard to believe Butts' foster son, Demetrius Minor, could stab the Blackwood man to death inside his own Hemlock Drive home.

But that's exactly what Minor, 16, confessed to doing during a plea hearing in Camden Friday morning.

The teen faces 30 years in state prison after pleading guilty to both first-degree aggravated manslaughter in connection with Butts' July 11 stabbing death and first-degree carjacking for stealing a car from a couple at gunpoint on May 29 in Blackwood's .

Nearly five months after Minor stabbed Butts to death, family members still can't believe it happened. Not to "Ted."

"The young folks looked up to him," sister-in-law Joan Moore said of the North Carolina native. "I have a son who is 32 years old who really looked up to him, and he was just devastated."

Similar stories were told in the hallways at the Camden County Hall of Justice on Friday.

Brother-in-law Mark Broach, pastor at Trenton Deliverance Church, where Butts was a dedicated, active member, recalled that it was Butts who "spearheaded" the effort to renovate his Mercer County church seven or eight years ago.

Butts, the pastor recalled, suffered from lower-back pain in his later years, prompting his doctor to tell him to give up the volunteer labor.

"He stuck with it," Broach said. "He gave constantly of himself."

"The main thing I have to say is that even though Demetrius lived there, he could not have known (Butts), otherwise we would never have been here today," an emotional David Broach, another of Butts' brothers-in-law, said after Friday's plea hearing. "He couldn't have done that if he knew him."

Minor was not the first troubled teen Butts and his wife of 16 years, Wanda Broach-Butts, welcomed into their home from the foster system.

"Most of the foster children they took in weren't the types of kids who would be welcomed into the average home," Mark Broach said. "Ted and Wanda, unfortunately, maybe extended themselves beyond what they should have because they saw something in Demetrius."

The Buttses were foster parents to six other boys during their marriage, according to Broach-Butts, who labeled the other boys "successes who went to college or got married or became productive members of the workforce."

"I have no regrets that we did what we did," she said. "I feel good that we were able to do that."

Broach-Butts said it's been the support of her family and church that have helped her keep going since July.

"That's what Ted would want," she said with a smile, her eyes tearing up.

Minor left the Buttses' Timber Cove development home about nine months or so prior to killing the 69-year-old retired railroad worker, but reportedly burglarized it several times after his departure.

It is believed Minor was stealing items from the home the night of July 11 when Butts confronted him, and he stabbed his foster father to death.

Broach-Butts said she was "happy" that "justice was served" and spared a long trial in which grisly details would be shared during testimony.

Superior Court Judge Samuel Natal scheduled Minor's sentencing for Feb. 17, 2012. Minor will be held in Camden County Jail until sentencing.

Minor waived his right to challenge the Camden County Prosecutor's Office's Aug. 5 motion 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.

He then waived his rights to indictment by grand jury and trial by jury for both cases.

Dee Stroupe, Minor's public defender at the juvenile level, asked Pugliese to allow Minor to remain in the Camden County Juvenile Detention Center even after he waived his right to be tried as a juvenile.

The judge, having already noted alleged "outbursts" by Minor since he arrived at the detention center in late July, declined the motion, saying, "He has not conducted himself as someone who wishes to stay there."

The May 29 carjacking incident began shortly before 5 p.m. when Minor approached a couple as they entered their vehicle near their Lakeview Apartments home. Minor approached the couple and pointed a Glock .45 handgun in the face of the woman. The couple’s infant child was in the car at the time of the incident, and they were able to get the baby out of the car before Minor sped away in their vehicle.

Assistant Camden County Prosecutor Tim Chatten handled the case for the state.

In addition to Stroupe at the juvenile level, Minor was represented by public defender Brad Westheimer at the criminal court level.