A Florida man was arrested after he allegedly tried to arrange a murder-for-hire plot to kill his neighbor over a drone dispute.
The Lake County Sheriff’s Office confirmed that David Butka was charged with one count of solicitation to commit murder following the incident.
Butka, 69, was already in custody after he pleaded no contest to a charge of aggravated assault following an incident involving the same victim on July 22. He was scheduled to be released on Thursday, September 17, but a fellow inmate reported him to a jail supervisor on Wednesday, September 16, regarding allegations of the murder-for-hire plot, according to a probable cause affidavit viewed by Us.
During the July incident, a witness told authorities that Butka and a neighbor were involved in an ongoing civil dispute regarding the defendant flying a drone over their property.
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The victim said they left their home when they “noticed the drone stopped above his house and pulled out his phone to record the ongoing civil issue involving the drone.”
They then claimed that Butka “aggressively” threw a rock at their vehicle, which left “marks and dents all over” it. Butka was subsequently arrested for the incident.
Butka was in custody on the aggravated assault charge when he allegedly approached another inmate on September 7 or September 8 and “solicited him to kill his neighbor,” per the affidavit.
He allegedly told the inmate that he had “approximately $1.3 million in the bank and would give him $5,000 up front to kill” his neighbor. He then allegedly shared the victim’s personal address, telephone number, their first name, a physical description, their morning schedule and instructions on how to find their home.
Police said Butka also gave the inmate his credit card information, which the inmate gave to his wife so that she could put $300 in his commissary account.
The inmate “had written the information regarding the plot on a piece of paper and provided a handwritten note containing the information regarding the plot” to a Lake County Sheriff’s Office official on September 16, which led to Butka being hit with the additional charge.
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Butka has denied his involvement in the murder-for-hire plot, and he claimed he gave the money to the inmate in order to retain a lawyer.
Sergeant James Vachon told WESH that it’s “still not real clear on why he felt the need to have this witness murdered other than, possibly, just anger and revenge.”
Butka’s bond for the new charge has been set at $25,000. It’s unclear whether he has retained an attorney or entered a plea in light of the new charge.
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