BLOUNTSTOWN – Justin Blair Butler was given 8 Life sentences Thursday for sexual assaults that started when the victim was 6 years old and continued for years, State Attorney Larry Basford announced.
Butler entered an open plea – meaning no deal was in place and Circuit Court Judge Brandon Young would decide the penalty – to 8 counts of Lewd and Lascivious Molestation. Young ordered that the sentences be served consecutively and added 15 years for sexual performance by a child because the defendant videotaped some of the acts. The defendant also was designated a Sexual Predator.
During sentencing Chief Calhoun County Prosecutor Joshua White called Calhoun County Sheriff’s Office Investigations Capt. John Scheetz. He testified the victim disclosed the abuse in November 2024 and was subsequently interviewed at the Children’s Advocacy Center. The statements she made were corroborated by the evidence and health officials.
The victim reported that Butler committed the assaults – he pled no contest to the acts that occurred between 2021 and 2024 – and told her not to tell anyone. The victim reported he promised her gifts, like a pony. Videos and pictures of the victim being abused were found on his phone.
An impact statement written by the victim was read in court by a family member. The victim wrote that the continued attacks left her “scared, mad, sad and confused.” She wrote she has nightmares, is scared to meet new people, and wears “baggy clothes because I don’t want nobody to look at me like that.”
“What he did, he knew was bad and wasn’t right but he did it anyway,” she wrote. “I believe that he should have life in prison. I don’t want him to be let out free when he gave a person so much trauma and made them lose their innocence at such a young age.”
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“Justin Butler is a monster who committed repeated heinous acts on a helpless child,” Prosecutor White said after sentencing. “He will die in prison and never again be able to hurt a child.
“The defendant committed these unspeakable acts over a period of 2-3 years, starting when the victim was 6, and this is a pattern, not a lapse, not a mistake,” White told Judge Young at sentencing. “Each act was a decision where he knew what he was doing. He is a danger to this community.”
Basford thanked the Calhoun County Sheriff’s Office and Capt. Scheetz and the Children’s Advocacy Center for their work on the case that helped lead to a plea.
For more information, contact Mike Cazalas at mike.cazalas@sa14.fl.gov, or call 850-381-7454.