Maple Grove woman who shot abusive boyfriend pleads to lesser charge after murder verdict overturned

A Maple Grove woman who claimed self-defense for fatally shooting her boyfriend more than five years ago is likely returning to prison — albeit for much less time —after a five-year legal odyssey that included a murder conviction, lengthy sentence and subsequent release after a successful appeal.

Stephanie Clark, 35, pleaded guilty in Hennepin County District Court last week to first-degree manslaughter in connection with shooting 30-year-old Don‘Juan “Duke” Butler more than a dozen times in her Maple Grove home in March 2020.

Clark stood trial in 2021 and was found guilty of second-degree intentional murder, but her conviction was overturned after the Minnesota Court of Appeals judges found an erroneous jury instruction may have improperly swayed the outcome. Her case gained the support of some of the nation’s leading scholars on domestic violence, as well as local advocacy groups. Clark maintained she acted in self-defense, fearing Butler was going to kill her and her son, who was 5 at the time and in the other room.

The plea agreement between the prosecution and the defense calls for Clark to be sentenced to a term ranging from slightly more than six to eight years, with a presumptive sentence of more than seven years.

Whatever sentence is imposed on Jan. 5, Clark can expect to serve the first two-thirds in prison and the balance on supervised release. In the meantime, she remains under court-ordered electronic home monitoring where she is allowed to spend time with her son Brandon.

The initial sentence would have meant more than 16 years in prison and nearly nine more on supervised release.

“The facts of the case indicate that Ms. Clark suffered intimate partner violence at Mr. Butler’s hands,” read a statement from the Hennepin County Attorney’s Office. “This resolution acknowledges both her role in causing his death and the context in which it occurred.”

“This is something I tried to get for her five years ago,” Eric Doolittle told the Minnesota Star Tribune. “It’s bittersweet. I 100 percent believe in my client’s innocence. … She thought she did what she had to do to live. She acted out of fear, intense fear.”

Prosecutors contended that a self-defense claim would have held up had Clark not fired a second gun to kill a wounded Butler.

Clark’s conviction was reversed in March 2023, when the Court of Appeals ruled that District Judge Peter Cahill gave an erroneous instruction to jurors, who asked in deliberations what “imminent” meant in Minnesota’s self-defense law.

Cahill, against the objection of Clark’s attorney, said it meant “immediate.” The jury reached a guilty verdict shortly afterward.

Clark testified that on March 5, 2020, the day of the shooting, Butler held a gun to her head. She said he paced around the house holding the gun and saying that once her son went to bed, he would break her ribs. He later put the gun down and continued pacing. Clark grabbed a revolver and followed him, firing eight times in the hallway. She said she just kept shooting and doesn’t remember grabbing a second revolver and shooting Butler in the head in the bedroom.

In its ruling, the Court of Appeals wrote that the term immediate “obliterates the nature of the buildup of terror and fear which had been systematically created over a long period of time.”

“Given [Butler’s] violent actions against Clark, the jury could have found that Clark was in imminent danger of great bodily harm, even if such danger was not immediate,” the ruling said.

The panel said the definition telegraphed to jurors that Butler’s actions did not qualify as an imminent threat and “placed a thumb on the scale for the prosecution.”