Justice on Trial: How Jesse Butler Turned 11 Felonies Into a Year of Freedom | Eric Faddis Breaks It Down

Eleven felony charges. Two teenage victims. One nearly strangled to death.
And somehow—no prison time.

In this episode of Hidden Killers with Tony Brueski, defense attorney and former prosecutor Eric Faddis joins Tony, Stacy, and Todd to unpack how Stillwater, Oklahoma’s justice system transformed one of the state’s most brutal sexual-assault cases into a single year of “rehabilitation.”

Eighteen-year-old Jesse Mack Butler was originally charged with rape, attempted rape, sexual battery, and assault and battery by strangulation after attacking two 16-year-old girls.
Police recovered partial phone-video evidence of the assault; one victim required neck surgery after nearly dying.

Because Butler was 17 at the time, his defense argued for Youthful Offender status. The court agreed. A potential 78-year sentence vanished, replaced with one year of supervision.

Tony and Eric break down:

• How a no-contest plea erased accountability.
  
  
• Why prosecutors accepted leniency despite overwhelming evidence.
  
  
• The legal loopholes in Oklahoma’s Youthful Offender statute.
  
  
• Whether empathy or privilege decided the outcome.
  
  
  

From both sides of the courtroom—prosecutor and defense—Eric Faddis explains how mercy became protection, how the law failed its victims, and what reforms could stop it from happening again.

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