Authorities said jarvis butts, 43, was found dead in a Michigan prison, the Michigan Department of Corrections confirmed, and MDOC officials reported his death as a suicide.
According to the MDOC website, he had been sent to Charles Egeler Reception and Guidance Center in Jackson County, where he was serving terms tied to a murder conviction and multiple sexual assault convictions.
Butts had entered guilty pleas in six separate cases during a pretrial hearing just under two weeks before his scheduled trial, including a plea in the second-degree murder case connected to the disappearance of 13-year-old J. E. Clark Preparatory Academy student Na'Ziyah Harris.
Case Details And Evidence
Court records show the plea agreements covered six cases, and prosecutors and defense lawyers reached specified sentence agreements for each case as part of the deal.
Four of the listed pleas were to second-degree criminal sexual conduct with agreed sentences of 10 to 15 years each, one plea was to third-degree criminal sexual conduct with an agreed sentence of 10 to 15 years, and one plea was to second-degree murder with an agreed sentence of 35 to 60 years.
The plea deal led to the dismissal of some additional charges across the six cases, according to court filings and reporting by Local 4.
Local 4 also reported that Butts admitted to disposing of Harris's body in the Rouge River near 7 Mile and Berg, the same area where officers initially searched during the missing person investigation.
Police said officers had found an inside-out pink jumpsuit, a black jacket and a red and black shoe near the intersection of 7 Mile and Berg during the initial search, and a U.S. Border Patrol officer assisting the case testified in court that the clothing appeared fresh with no discoloration or animal disturbance.
Prosecutors had also linked Butts to separate sexual assault allegations involving an eight-year-old relative and another young girl, matters that were part of the broader set of charges addressed in the plea agreements.
