Man who said cat's behavior persuaded him to kill gets 50 years

EVERETT — A man who said he was convinced his cat's behavior showed who should live and who should die has been sentenced to 50 years in prison for first-degree murder, the top of the standard range.

Snohomish County Superior Court Judge Ellen J. Fair accepted the recommendation of prosecutors on Tuesday in sentencing Clayton Edward Butsch, 40, of Lake Stevens, for the shooting of Chad J. Vavricka, 30, of Snohomish.

"You are a monster. I hate you," said Peggy Vavricka, the victim's mother, during the court proceedings. "Your mother can see you. I will never see my son again."

Prosecutors said Butsch was delusional and high on methamphetamine but knew what he was doing when he killed Vavricka on Jan. 24, 2004. Vavricka's body was found the next day in some illegally dumped garbage.

Butsch believed his cat Sam was the reincarnation of a kitten he had baked to death in an oven 10 years ago and thus could show him who was evil and who was good.

According to testimony in his trial, Butsch shot Vavricka, who was asleep at the time in Butsch's fifth-wheel trailer in Lake Stevens, after the cat refused to go near him.

Butsch was convicted in 1995 of intimidating a witness and first-degree animal cruelty for putting a woman's kitten in an oven and killing it.