Driver in deadly DUI wreck that sheared vehicle in two pleads guilty a second time
A Wichita man responsible for a drunken driving wreck east of downtown that killed his passenger on Sept. 18, 2015, pleaded guilty last week to one count of involuntary manslaughter.
Travis R. Butcher, 41, will be sentenced Aug. 11 in connection with the death of 24-year-old Joey Valentine, Sedgwick County District Court records show. Judge Kevin O’Connor will hand down the sentence.
Court records say Butcher gave Valentine a ride after a night of drinking with friends at a bar and crashed into a tree in a residential neighborhood at approximately 80 mph. The force of the impact was so great it sheared Butcher’s BMW in two, killing Valentine and injuring Butcher, according to court records.
Butcher’s blood alcohol level was nearly three times the legal limit to drive in Kansas the night of the crash, the records say.
The wreck occurred around 2 a.m. just west of Second and Grove, Wichita police said previously.
The August sentencing won’t be Butcher’s first in the case. In 2017, he entered a guilty plea to one count of second-degree reckless murder — a crime which landed him a 109-month prison sentence. But he was allowed to withdraw it last year after a judge determined Butcher’s lawyer hadn’t given him key information about court rulings involving Wichita’s DUI ordinance, records show.
Having that information, the judge ruled, would have likely led Butcher to insist on taking his case to trial instead of accepting the plea offer the lawyer pushed.
