Prosecutor: Cat told man to kill

Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Lisa Paul told jurors Clayton Butsch had a special relationship with his cat.

"He believed his cat had some special powers," she said in an opening statement yesterday in Snohomish County Superior Court. "He believed his cat had his back. ... It could tell him who should live or die."

On Jan. 24, 2004, Butsch's cat told him that Chad Vavricka should die, Paul said, so Butsch shot Vavricka in the head while the victim was sleeping in a fifth-wheel trailer in Lake Stevens.

When the first shot didn't kill Vavricka, 30, Butsch went back and fired again, said Paul.

So began the trial against Butsch, 40, on charges of first-degree murder, unlawful possession of a firearm and possession of a controlled substance.

Testimony and evidence presented in the trial are likely to paint the picture of a seedy subculture of methamphetamine addicts who often slept in the tiny trailer during the day and searched for a fix each night.

According to court documents, Vavricka had been staying in the trailer with Butsch for a few days.

Butsch believed he was part of "The Truman Show," a reference to a 1998 movie about a man whose life was actually a TV show, and that people were watching him from his closet and under his trailer, said Paul.

And then there was his relationship with his cat, Paul said. He believed it could tell him who was good and who was bad, according to a witness quoted in court documents.

But he knew what he was doing when he killed Vavricka, said Paul.

Jurors, Paul said, will hear from those who watched Butsch shoot Vavricka, neighbors of Butsch who saw him and friends trying to dispose of evidence, and the couple who found the body that was dumped on the side of a road with items from the trailer.

But Kelli Armstrong, Butsch's court-appointed attorney, said in her opening statement that the witnesses aren't credible. Some of them are in prison, most have prior convictions and many have changed their stories about what happened the night of the murder, she said.

Armstrong also said the evidence doesn't link Butsch to the crime: There were no fingerprints found on the gun.

"The key to this is what you're not going to see and what the evidence is not going to show," said Armstrong, adding that statements by witnesses will "lack credibility completely."

Butsch faces possible life in prison if convicted of first-degree murder. He has numerous prior convictions, including eight felonies and more than a dozen misdemeanors, according to court documents.

In 1995, he pleaded guilty to first-degree cruelty to animals for burning a friend's 8-month-old kitten in an oven. In that case, he put the kitten in the oven and blocked the door to prevent it from escaping. The pet was euthanized the next day after it was critically burned.

Brian Alexander: 425-745-7845 or balexander@seattletimes.com