PRESS RELEASE
For Immediate Release on November 23, 2005
Contact: William J. Smith (718) 556-7150
William.Smith@rcda.nyc.gov

D.A. Donovan: “Live-In Boyfriend” Indicted in
Death of 2 Year-Old S.I. Girl
***Julius Butler, 32, Charged With 2 Counts of Criminally Negligent Homicide and Related Charges in July 23rd Death of Aniesa Wood***

STATEN ISLAND, NY - Richmond County District Attorney Daniel M. Donovan, Jr. announced today the unsealing of an indictment against Julius C. Butler (DOB: 5/8/1973) on charges of related to the July 23, 2005 death of Aniesa Wood, the two year old daughter of his “live-in girlfriend” at their residence on Brook Street in the Tompkinsville section. The defendant has been indicted by a Richmond County Grand Jury with two counts each of Criminally Negligent Homicide and Endangering the Welfare of a Child.

District Attorney Donovan stated, “This indictment alleges that Julius Butler, by criminal negligence, caused the death of this innocent child by inflicting a blunt trauma to her abdominal region and following that injury failed to promptly obtain medical attention for her. The defendant has also been indicted on two counts of Endangering the Welfare of a Child for failing to properly exercise reasonable diligence in caring for young Aniesa when she was placed in his care.”

In the early evening of July 23, 2005, while in the care of the defendant, Aniesa Wood was discovered by her mother in a bedroom of their home; unconscious and not breathing. Wood died later that evening. Butler was arrested at that time on a charge of Endangering the Welfare of a Child. He has been held without bail on a violation of his parole for a 2003 manslaughter conviction in The Bronx.

The defendant was arraigned on the charges in State Supreme Court before Judge Leonard P. Rienzi. He was ordered held on bail of $100,000 bond/$75,000 bail.

The top count of the indictment, Criminally Negligent Homicide, is a Class E felony, which carries a penalty of up to 4 years in prison for each of the two counts.

The case will be prosecuted by Assistant District Attorney Duncan Brown, under the supervision of Yolanda L. Rudich, Chief of the Sex Crimes/Special Victims Bureau. The defendant is represented by Joseph Licitra, Esq.

The public is reminded than an indictment is merely an accusation, and that a defendant is innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.

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