Posted on 09/05/2002 4:14:04 PM PDT by sinkspur
Detective: Bird collected DNA while fighting off owner's killers
"Bird" loved Kevin Butler so much that he died trying to fend off his owner's killers.
The 18-inch white-crested cockatoo couldn't save Mr. Butler, but police say Bird helped solve his brutal Christmas Eve slaying.
DNA found on the bloody beak of the dead cockatoo provided the key evidence to put a suspect at the murder scene of Mr. Butler, 48, in Pleasant Grove, a Dallas police detective testified Tuesday at an examining trial.
A day before a Dallas grand jury decides whether Johnny Serna, 22, and Daniel Torres, 30, should be tried for capital murder, Detective Brent Mauldin told a judge that Bird "came to his owner's rescue by diving and pecking at Torres" during a violent struggle in Mr. Butler's living room.
"The bird attacked him, and he stabbed at him with a fork," Detective Mauldin testified.
The bird flew to the kitchen but carried a sample of the killer's blood, he said.
"So he forked the bird?" prosecutor George West asked.
"Yes," Detective Mauldin answered.
DNA found on the bloody beak of Bird, a white-crested cockatoo, provided the key evidence in the murder case. Police took the bodies of Mr. Butler and Bird to the Dallas County medical examiner's office. Tests found that Mr. Butler had been bound, beaten and stabbed multiple times. The cockatoo was missing a leg and died from a stab wound to the back.
Mr. Serna and Mr. Torres denied any involvement in the crime until test results came back in July with a DNA match of evidence collected from Bird's beak and a sample taken from Mr. Torres months earlier.
Faced with the evidence, the detective testified, Mr. Serna confessed that his half brother slashed Mr. Butler's throat while he searched the house for valuables. Police said the slaying was the result of a long-running feud between Mr. Serna and Mr. Butler because Mr. Serna had altered a check Mr. Butler gave him to pay for an aboveground pool liner.
Mr. Serna is being held in the Dallas County Jail in lieu of $1 million bail; Mr. Torres is being held in lieu of $750,000 bail.
Mr. Butler's body was discovered in his living room by a friend who went to his house after Mr. Butler failed to show up for Christmas dinner. His truck and a videocassette recorder were stolen, along with about $1,200 in cash, according to police reports. Mr. Butler's truck was found a few days later.
Detective Mauldin told Judge Jim Pruitt that an analysis on more forensic evidence collected from Mr. Butler's truck had not been completed. Mr. Serna's DNA samples did not match any of the samples collected, nor were his fingerprints found in Mr. Butler's home in the 3300 block of Etta Drive, near Scyene Road and Prairie Creek Road.
Mr. Serna and Mr. Torres live in the block behind Mr. Butler's house.
Mr. Butler got the cockatoo from a friend two years ago and named him after former NBA great Larry Bird, Mr. West said. Tests on the bird did not determine his age.
Cockatoos are large members of the parrot family known for being intelligent, affectionate and having boisterous personalities.
Mr. West said the bond between Mr. Butler and Bird was obvious.
"Bird died valiantly," Mr. West said. "There were feathers scattered through the house, and he put up a fight, no doubt about that.
"Kevin's family and co-workers have told me that you just didn't mess with Kevin while that bird was around."
Cockatoos are large members of the parrot family known for being intelligent, affectionate and having boisterous personalities.
Some members are also known for their ability to bite one's finger off. In this case, fortunately, drawing blood proved sufficient.
When my wife and I last visited New Orleans, a guy had a cockatoo that he'd put on a fence in the little park in front of St. Louis Cathedral. The bird would walk the fence, talk, and laughhhhhh.....It was one of the most entertaining things I've ever seen.
That bird was loyal to that man.
Well, there it is - the punchline of West's favorite cocktail-party courtroom story for the next fifteen years or so...
I have a bird who I trust deeply. It just breaks my heart that this bird was killed. But I think it died a hero, in my heart he will always be a hero. I would like to think that my bird would protect me as much as he could. He goes lots of places with me.
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