Convict, 51, found guilty of murder for stabbing neighbor 52 times and cutting off his fingers

A Michigan man has been found guilty of fatally stabbing a friend more than 50 times and cutting off his fingers before dumping his body in a field. 

Ralph Butler, 51, was convicted of second-degree murder on Wednesday in the death of his 57-year-old neighbor Andrew Cannon.

The pair lived two doors away from each other in Buena Vista Township, Michigan, and reports say that Butler, a registered sex offender, had owed Cannon money and that Cannon was having an affair with Butler’s girlfriend.   

Cannon’s body was found in a field 85 miles northwest of Detroit in December 2016.  

He had been stabbed 52 times in his chest and face and his thumbs had been cut off.  

While documenting the crime scene, investigators were called to a nearby Dollar General where an employee had found bloody clothes in the store’s parking lot. 

Inside the trash bin police found seven fingertips that were later used to identify Cannon, as well as a Bowie-type knife, bloody clothes, a single tennis shoe and gloves. 

Butler and Cannon lived two doors away from each other in Buena Vista Township. Prosecutors say Butler owed Cannon money and that Cannon was having an affair with Butler’s girlfriend

Police later identified three crime scenes in the case, including Cannon’s home, where the murder is thought to have occurred. 

In court the prosecutors said motive for the killing was that Butler owed Cannon money, and that Cannon was having a sexual relationship with Butler’s girlfriend.

Butler’s attorney claimed that both motives were unsupportable because a $30 debt was not a motive to kill Cannon and that the rumor about Butler’s girlfriend was disputed by Butler himself. 

The trial began on May 10, and on Wednesday after two days of deliberation a jury found Butler guilty of second-degree murder.

He is currently being held without bail pending sentencing, and faces the possibility of life in prison.