Ex-Burnet officer convicted of criminally negligent homicide for 2019 killing
Russell Butler, an ex-Burnet police officer, recently pleaded no contest to a charge of criminally negligent homicide for the killing of a 25-year-old Burnet resident, Brandon Michael Jacque, in 2019. Courtesy photo
Former Burnet Police Officer Russell Butler pleaded no contest on Wednesday, Nov. 19 to a charge of criminally negligent homicide for the killing of 25-year-old Burnet man Brandon Michael Jacque in 2019.
Butler was sentenced to five years of deferred adjudication and ordered to pay $1,000 in fines for the conviction. This brings an end to more than six years of legal struggles surrounding the 2019 incident that led to Butler shooting, and killing, Jacque.
Butler reportedly shot Jacque after responding to a noise complaint at a Burnet residence on March 27, 2019. At the scene, Jacque was in the driver’s seat of a vehicle in the driveway of the residence and Butler ordered him to halt as he began backing down the driveway. The car then ran over Butler’s foot and he opened fire on Jacque, killing him. Reports from the incident indicate that Butler contacted EMS and attempted to provide life-saving aid to Jacque following the shooting.
An X-ray of Butler’s foot after the incident revealed that he had suffered no significant injuries from being run over. Butler was fired from the Burnet Police Department on April 23, 2019 for violating the BPD use of force policy. The city of Burnet was also ordered to pay a total of $599,000 in settlements to Jacque’s mother and the mother of his daughter.
“Today Butler took a plea deal,” reads a post made on the Justice4B Facebook page, operated by Jacque’s sister Ashlie Demers, on Wednesday. “It is not at all what we were hoping for but it was a decision made as a family.”
The five years of deferred adjudication from Russell’s sentence means that he will be on probation for the next five years, but not see any jail time unless he violates the terms of his probation.
“We would not have (offered a plea deal) without consultation with the family,” 33rd & 424th District Attorney Perry Thomas told DailyTrib. “The family is happy that there is closure in this matter and that there is some recognition of (Butler’s) wrongdoing.”
His conviction of criminally negligent homicide is a state jail felony, but a lesser charge than that of manslaughter, which he was charged with in 2022 after a jury found him not guilty of first-degree murder.
Criminally negligent homicide indicates a killing through negligence; manslaughter indicates a killing through recklessness; and first-degree murder indicates a killing that is willful and premeditated.
Jacque’s sister, Ashlie Demers, shared a written statement on the Justice4B Facebook page that she said was read aloud in court.
“You (addressing Butler) took a life, someone who can never be replaced,” reads the closing lines of the statement. “And the impact of that will live with me for the rest of my life.”
Read the whole statement at this link.