Kamloops judge to decide if guilty plea in murder case will stand

KAMLOOPS, B.C. – A B.C. Supreme Court judge will decide whether a Kamloops man should be allowed to plead guilty to murdering a woman who once lived with him.

Forty-one-year-old Christopher Butler has been charged with the second-degree murder of 26-year-old Deanne Wheeler, whose body was discovered in an apartment last December.

Butler has pleaded guilty to the charge and he appeared in court this week.

The judge has the option of accepting Butler’s guilty plea and handing down a sentence or rejecting it and ordering that a trial be held.

During earlier court appearances Butler blurted out incoherent statements about God and religion but in April he was found mentally fit to stand trial.

Butler and Wheeler had been involved in a romantic relationship in the past but were not together at the time of her death. (Kamloops This Week)