Four years ago today Norman Butta Ferguson was gunned down in front of Prime Cuts Meats office by of all people his boss Edward Reyes. And four years later Reyes was convicted of manslaughter for a second time. We say convicted again because a jury convicted Reyes of manslaughter in March of 2006 and a judge sentenced him to 7 years. He later appealed the conviction and he was granted a new trial. But today it took the jury just over 2 hours to convict Reyes of manslaughter - again.
Reyes has maintained throughout that he killed Ferguson in self-defense. He said he pulled out his licensed 9 milimeter gun and shot Butta Ferguson in the chest because Ferguson aggressively approached him and he was foaming from the mouth. It is a story Butta Ferguson’s family didn’t believe then and they don’t believe now. His niece Kendra Tucker reacted to the verdict.
Kendra Tucker, Niece of Norman Ferguson
“I feel good and the family feels good right now because I had thought we would have never gotten the justice that we deserved. Today we had justice.
We feel that the system worked for us. We feel good that God gave us this justice that we were seeking, not manmade justice but God’s justice because we feel as the family to never dirty our hands with revenge. We feel good that we never had to pay to get the justice that we deserved.
I hope this is the end and I hope that the justice that we are seeking is not just the seven years that he had received the first time because that seven years was a slap in our face because if it was Norman that had did this to him, he would have never gotten seven years and be out. So we hope that justice works for us this time and that he get the amount of years he deserves for taking our uncle life from us.
In my heart I know if somebody went in that shop to have robbed Mando’s, this same Butta would have given his life for his boss because Butta loved those people and they just took his life and think that they are not supposed to pay for the wrong that they did.
Unu class him as a sprang head but he had belonged to us. Everybody that falls to drugs belongs to somebody, somebody that loves them and it hurts a family when you just go and take their life like that for no reason and think that you don’t have to pay the price. This is the thing that hurts me more because he always gave his service to you all and you took his life just like that. That is what hurts me most.”
Edward Reyes will be sentenced on January 28th.
