A South Carolina man will spend decades in prison for fatally shooting a father who stepped in to protect his daughter during a domestic violence incident.
A Berkeley County jury convicted Joshua Scott-Lee Butler, 29, earlier this week on one count of murder in the death of 53-year-old Earl Goodwater. Jurors also convicted him on one count each of pointing and presenting a firearm at a person and possession of a weapon during the commission of a violent crime. They acquitted Butler on one count of second-degree domestic violence.
Circuit Court Judge Courtney Clyburn-Pope sentenced the defendant later that week to 45 years in prison. The judge also sentenced Butler to two five-year sentences for the lesser crimes, ordering those sentences to run concurrently, or at the same time.
The underlying incident occurred outside the Goodwater residence on Westminster Boulevard in the St. James Estates neighborhood of Goose Creek on May 13, 2023, according to the Ninth Circuit Solicitor’s Office.
At trial, prosecutors showed that Butler and his then-fiancee arrived at her parents’ house around 10 p.m.
Earlier that same night, the couple had gotten into an argument that began at a different family gathering. The argument turned physical while they were in the driveway. The defendant hit the woman in the face, cutting her mouth and causing it to swell, prosecutors said.
That first act of violence occurred in front of the couple’s daughter, authorities noted.
The woman then entered her parents’ home to retrieve the couple’s 1-year-old child, prosecutors said. While inside the house, she called for help from her father. Goodwater told his daughter to “leave that boy alone,” and the two men subsequently got into a physical altercation that quickly spilled out of the house and into the front yard.
Family members tried to pull the men apart, but Butler ran to his vehicle and retrieved a 9 mm handgun that he pointed at someone else entirely, according to trial testimony.
“I’m not afraid to die,” the third person said, in an attempt to divert attention away from Goodwater, his daughter and children who had come outside amid the confrontation, prosecutors said.
The defendant then “did a ‘2-3 step’ and jerked past the witness” he was initially aiming the gun at, prosecutors said. Butler then confronted Goodwater directly again, this time near the front porch.
In an ensuing struggle, the younger man put the older man in a headlock while still holding the gun. Then a single shot rang out.
Butler shot Goodwater in the right cheek. Authorities said the wound was both fatal and likely caused instantaneous death.
The defendant fled the scene with his 4-year-old daughter, and Berkeley County Sheriff’s Office deputies arrested him after he returned to the scene later that night.
Butler was originally arrested on a charge of involuntary manslaughter but was later indicted on more serious charges.
“Earl Goodwater did what any good father would do: he stepped up to protect his daughter and grandchildren,” Assistant Solicitor Michelle Hart said in a statement. “This was a domino effect caused by the defendant’s decisions. Butler had already assaulted Earl’s daughter. He had already been pulled off of Earl. He chose to go to that car, arm himself, and go back to the house. That choice ended a father’s life in front of his family, and the jury and judge held him accountable for it.”
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