Crofton Veteran With PTSD Loses Appeals In Girlfriend's Murder

CROFTON, MD — A Crofton man has lost his appeal of the life prison sentence handed down for stabbing and beating his girlfriend to death. Ryan Gregory Hollebon, 40, of the 1700 block of Carry Place in Crofton, was sentenced in April 2018 for the murder of Jhalandia Elaine Butler, 28, of the same address. Butler was pronounced dead at the scene from more than 50 stab wounds in March 2017.

In court Jan. 16, 2018, Hollebon entered an Alford plea to the murder charge, which means he did not admit guilt in the crime, but agreed that prosecutors had enough evidence to convict him. In return, the state's attorney's office dropped assault charges against Hollebon, described as an Iraq War veteran battling post-traumatic stress disorder.

Hollebon said in his appeal of the mandatory life sentence that he should have a chance for release, and Butler's death "doesn't define who I am as a person," the Capital-Gazette reports. An appeals panel heard Hollebon's argument on Dec. 18, 2018, and recently denied the appeal, saying serving a life sentence doesn’t make placement for mental health treatment impossible for Hollebon, the newspaper reported.

Hollebon should never have been free, the county prosecutor said previously when he criticized the judge who released Hollebon from custody in December 2016. Hollebon was arrested then for domestic assault of his girlfriend, whom he killed roughly two months later.

In his appeal, Hollebon claimed that he and Butler began "a volatile chaotic relationship after meeting at Mental Hospital," which was the Martinsburg Veterans Affairs Medical Center in West Virginia. The pair were released after they refused to end their relationship, the newspaper reported, and Hollebon said they eventually began to use heroin.

"The tragic murder of Ms. Butler is one of the most disturbing instances of domestic violence to be witnessed by our county," said Anne Arundel County State's Attorney Wes Adams when Hollebon entered his Alford plea. "Mr. Hollebon escalated a domestic dispute to a degree of violence that no mitigating factor could ever justify."

Anne Arundel County Police received a call about domestic violence about 9:24 p.m. on Sunday, March 5, 2017, at the house Butler and Hollebon shared in the 1700 block of Carry Place in Crofton. Officers arrived at the scene to find Butler lying inside the residence, while Hollebon had fled. He was taken into custody the next day in Baltimore City, police said.

The Office of the Chief Medical Examiner performed an autopsy on Butler and ruled the cause of death was multiple sharped-edge wounds coupled with blunt force trauma and the manner was homicide. Prosecutors said Hollebon used a pocketknife to stab Butler 53 times.

Mason Tunning, who told the Capital-Gazette he is the father of Butler's child, called Hollebon's plea deal "disgusting." He added he was surprised by the decision when prosecutors were ready to present evidence that Hollebon was found bloodied in Baltimore the day after Butler's murder and admitted to police that he had stabbed her.

State's Attorney Adams previously issued a statement denouncing the judge who let Hollebon go free on his own recognizance Dec. 5, 2016, after he was arrested for allegedly choking, shaking, and banging Butler's head. When he was arrested two days earlier for second-degree domestic assault, a District Court Commissioner decided to hold Hollebon without bond, but Judge Thomas V. Miller III released the suspect.

"I am angered at another tragic loss at the hands of alleged domestic abuse. From the outset of this tragedy, one that might have been prevented, my prosecutors were keenly aware of the danger that Mr. Hollebon presented to Jhalandia Butler," Adams said in a statement last year, which didn't identify Miller by name.

During the bail review hearing on the assault charge, prosecutors voiced implored Miller to hold Hollebon without bail because of the violent nature of the charges, Adams said. His office argued then that Butler would not be safe if Hollebon were released, and if he were released that he should be ordered to have no contact with the victim. Judge Miller denied the requests and has not commented on Adams' criticism.

Hollebon was ordered to complete an in-patient program at the Martinsburg Veterans Affairs Medical Center.

"As prosecutors, we know all too well that domestic violence usually leads to more domestic violence. Therefore, as a rule, we do everything we can to keep the accused from the victim," Adams said. "Unfortunately, at that time, the judge did not heed our requests."