Jury finds former soldier guilty of killing rancher

A former soldier invaded property an Elbert County rancher was tending, ate at a table inside a trailer there, rummaged through items and then killed the rancher when confronted about trespassing, a jury determined Monday.

The 18th Judicial District Attorney’s Office said in a news release issued Tuesday that the jury convicted Joe Robert Love, 28, of firstdegree murder after deliberation in the killing of Edward Butler, 68, of Agate.

According to the news release, Love pulled off the highway and onto a rural road of the ranch where Butler was staying on Jan. 23, 2016. Butler used to own the property and was taking care of it while the new owners weren’t in town.

Surveillance footage showed Love enter a trailer on the property where he ate and went through items inside. When Butler noticed Love’s vehicle outside the trailer, he verified with the landowners to make sure he wasn’t supposed to be there.

Butler then confronted the intruder, the news release said.

Love took Butler outside, stole his gun and shot him twice in the head and then fled, the news release stated.

He was arrested in Fort Bliss, Texas, in January 2017, after investigators tied him to the murder through DNA and other evidence.

The news release said that Love also implicated himself in jail calls.

In addition to the firstdegree murder charge, the jury found Love guilty of first-degree felony murder, second-degree kidnapping, aggravated robbery and first-degree burglary. He is facing a life sentence without parole and is scheduled to be sentenced June 18.

“Ed Butler was shot in the head twice by a wanton killer for doing no more than being a good neighbor,” District Attorney George Brauchler said in the news release. “An entire community was made to feel less safe by the seemingly random act of violence by a brutal murderer who appears to have taken another life for the most selfish of reasons — to protect himself from accountability for his other crimes.”