Guide Note

The Garland, Texas, Christian musician Matthew Butler was not a household name, but the brutality of his murder, along with that of his associate Stephen Swan, made national news—as has the arrest of the alleged perpetrators. A pair of 19-year-old cousins, James Broadnax and Demarius Cummings, were arrested June 20, 2008, for gunning down Butler and Swan. The crime occurred the previous day, outside the victims' Zion Gate Records recording studio.

Fast Facts

1. Butler was 28
2. Swan was 26
3. Broadnax and Cummings arrested in their hometown of Texarkana.¹

The suspects had reportedly traveled from Dallas to suburban Garland, expressly to commit a random robbery. In a jailhouse interview, Broadnax claimed matter-of-factly to have shot both victims.² The assailants made off with $2 cash in Swan's 1994 Ford Crown Victoria. Both face charges of capital murder.

In an interview with Greta Van Susteren, Butler's widow, Jamie Butler, expressed compassion for the assailants.

• "God died on the cross for them and that he will forgive them. And my husband, I know, is waiting at the gates of heaven, wanting to meet these men and saying, I forgive you, as well."—Jamie Butler³