Marcus Butts is acting as his own lawyer in his Lee County, Georgia, murder trial, cross-examining the state's witnesses himself as prosecutors try to prove he killed Jessica Thompson and her daughter Julianna in Smithville in March 2024.
Testimony began October 27 and continued Wednesday, WALB reported. Butts denies the killings and is presumed innocent.
The case
Smithville police responded to a 911 call at an apartment in the 100 block of Wells Street on March 7, 2024, and found Jessica Lynn Hatcher Thompson, 41, and her daughter Julianna Denise Thompson, 17, dead, according to the Georgia Bureau of Investigation. The GBI said Butts, then 28 and from Preston, was arrested on unrelated charges on March 9, 2024, and that agents obtained murder warrants against him in April.
A Lee County grand jury returned an 18-count indictment in June 2024, including two counts of malice murder and six counts of felony murder, WALB reported at the time. Four of the counts stem from a separate January 2024 incident in which a man was assaulted and his gun was allegedly stolen.
Why he fired his lawyer
Butts told the judge during jury selection that his lawyer did not listen to him and had suggested he take a plea early in the case, WALB reported on October 26. "My lawyer shouldn't have to come to that jailhouse and basically threaten me a death penalty," Butts said.
The judge advised him against it, then allowed it. "If you represent yourself, you cannot complain about your representation," the judge warned. Attorney Kwashnak was appointed as standby counsel to sit beside him. "If you don't want to talk to him, if you don't want to use him, you're not required to," the judge told Butts.
What the jury has heard
District Attorney Lewis Lamb called Butts "a cold-blooded, heartless murderer" in his opening and said the evidence "leads to only one conclusion." He told jurors GBI testing matched cartridges found at the scene to casings from the original owner of the stolen gun.
Seven witnesses testified on the first day, including Jessica Thompson's boyfriend, Smithville officer Michel Francis and a former GBI medical examiner who described gunshot wounds to both women's heads. On Wednesday a GBI crime scene specialist walked jurors through photos of the apartment. Francis testified that a condom was found near the front door, which WALB noted could carry DNA evidence. The reporting does not say whether it was tested.
On cross-examination, Butts asked whether anything from the scene pointed to him. He also acknowledged involvement in the stolen gun incident and said he and Julianna sold the gun before the deaths, according to WALB. "When you're in a relationship with your girlfriend then, you're gonna be the first suspect," he said.
The newsroom's analysis: what self-representation means
The right Butts is using comes from Faretta v. California, decided June 30, 1975. The Supreme Court held that the Sixth Amendment guarantees "an independent constitutional right of self-representation" for a defendant who "voluntarily and intelligently elects to do so." That is why a judge who thinks the choice is unwise must still allow it after warning the defendant.
Faretta also explains the two details from Butts's courtroom. The Court said a state may appoint "standby counsel" even over the defendant's objection, which is Kwashnak's role. And the dissenters noted the trade the majority accepted, that a defendant who chooses to go it alone gives up a later claim that his lawyer was ineffective. The judge's warning about not complaining later was that rule in plain words.
Butts's own cross-examination shows the risk. A defendant who questions witnesses also tells jurors things, like his admission about the stolen gun, without taking the stand or facing cross-examination himself. Prosecutors say the stolen gun is the link to the scene.
Timeline
March 7, 2024: Jessica and Julianna Thompson are found dead, per the GBI.
March 9, 2024: Butts is arrested on unrelated charges.
April 2024: GBI agents obtain murder warrants.
June 2024: Grand jury returns 18 counts.
May 20, 2025: A Lee County judge revokes Butts's probation in a 2020 aggravated assault case, keeping him jailed through at least 2029, WALB reported.
October 26 to 28, 2026: Jury selection, openings and testimony.
The state must prove each charge beyond a reasonable doubt, the standard laid out in our explainer on what reasonable doubt means for jurors. A recent North Carolina jury applied it in the Faith Hedgepeth verdict, where DNA was central. In Lee County, the jury will also be judging a defendant's skill as his own lawyer.
Two Taps News stories summarize reporting and the analysis discussed on Two Taps and Friends. They are not legal advice. Read our standards.
