Mecklenburg judge revokes unsecured bond in delivery driver murder case

Jeff A. Chamer
·2 min read

A Charlotte family was left outraged in April after a Mecklenburg County judge allowed the person accused of killing their family member, Abijah Barkley, out of jail on an unsecured $300,000 bond.

But on Thursday, Superior Court Judge Carla Archie granted a prosecution motion to modify 17-year-old Christopher Butler’s bond, and instead place him under a $300,000 secured bond. Butler was placed in handcuffs and taken away in court. He is being tried as an adult.

“I feel a sense of relief,” said Taylor Johnson, Barkley’s girlfriend and the mother of his child, to the Observer on Thursday. “It won’t bring him back of course, but I do feel a bit better.”

Johnson spoke before the judge on Thursday, pleading with Archie to side with the state and revoke the unsecured bond set by Judge Aretha Blake in April.

“His killer, and anyone that was involved in this horrible gruesome act shall be penalized the maximum sentence for his wrongdoings,” Johnson said to the judge. “And if he does not face consequences, there may be another victim like Abijah. Butler “has caused tremendous pain to me, his daughter, and his family.”

Butler was accused of plotting to rob Barkley, 21, in March at Southside Homes on Griffith Street with another person, Cortez Springs. Assistant District Attorney Nikki Robinson said the two planned it together over Instagram messages.

Barkley was delivering food with Springs riding in the passenger seat, prosecutors said. And at some point, they went to the Southside Homes so Springs could sell marijuana.

Butler, who Barkley didn’t know, allegedly approached the car like he was going to buy marijuana, prosecutors said, and got in the backseat. Both Butler and Barkley had guns, prosecutors said, and Butler fatally shot Barkley.

Prosecutors said surveillance video showed Butler getting out of the car and running away. He briefly returned, prosecutors said, when he remembered he was wearing an ankle monitor, but Cortez told him that it was okay and he could run away.

Butler ran away, allegedly cut off his ankle monitor, and was on the run for 21 days.

Butler’s defense attorney argued that Butler was not planning to rob Barkley. If he was going to rob him, she said, he would have acted more quickly.

She said Barkley was the aggressor in the encounter, not Butler. He had no choice but to act in self-defense once he saw Barkley’s firearm.

An administrative hearing is set for July 18.

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