On Thursday Sean Butler-Smith's sister tried to contact me, yesterday because of the Tree sentencing, we were not able to talk until later. The building was closing, we all left. Juror #7 contacted me last evening and I will be posting another post from Sean's sister.
It is the weekend and Monday is a court holiday so I may not have comment from the jail or the DA's office until Tuesday.
Dear Mr. Chiv:
I hope others share my outrage about what happened to Sean Butler-Smith, the drug addict who risked his life to testify against double-murderer Bodhi Tree. He was brutally assaulted in HumCo jail within the last 3 days.
He is now in the super max part of the jail (where he's in his cell 23.5 hrs!) for his own safety. But why was he ever put in general population?
This is not the first time Butler-Smith has been assaulted in Humco Jail. He lost some teeth and wound up in the infirmary last year after testifying in Tree's preliminary hearing.
HumCo is lucky that Butler-Smith's family hasn't filed a lawsuit for the jail's repeated negligence in not keeping Butler-Smith safe.
The DA's office is trying to move his case to another county for his safety. Unfortunately, Butler-Smith's family doesn't have the funds to get him and keep him there.
He needs a (locked) rehab center in another county. He has to have support after rehab: some safe place to stay and money to live as he reintegrates into the community. A family member to live with - and be accountable to - would give him the best chance, but moving is expensive.
Yes, Sean is far from innocent; he has been living the life of a homeless heroin addict. He steals and cheats and scams to feed his addiction. But he is the person most responsible for protecting our community from double-murderer Bodhi Tree. We owe him and the HumCo Jail (especially) owes him.
I hope he isn't forgotten as the Tree trial winds down.
Juror #7.
Thank you
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