A jury will come back to court next week to decide whether to convict a man charged with murder in connection with a fatal robbery last spring.

The 12 jurors deliberated for a few hours Friday afternoon before deciding to break for the weekend and return to the Cumberland County Courthouse on Monday. They are considering whether to find Damion Butterfield, 24, guilty of murder, aggravated attempted murder and robbery.

He is accused of killing Derald “Darry” Coffin and shooting Annabelle Hartnett in Portland shortly after 1 a.m. on April 26, 2022, in what investigators have called a robbery turned deadly.

The jury must unanimously decide whether Butterfield is guilty of each of the three charges.

But to find him guilty of murder, the highest charge, not everyone has to agree that Butterfield pulled the trigger – he could still be convicted if some jurors believe that he only helped someone else as an accomplice.

His defense attorneys have argued that it was actually Jonathan Geisinger, 46, who shot Coffin and Hartnett.

‘INCH BY INCH’

Police have said Geisinger, Butterfield and Thomas MacDonald, 45, approached Hartnett’s Range Rover that night as she and Anthony Osborne, 46, were sitting in the backseat.

The men attacked Coffin, demanding money. Then, in an unplanned move, Butterfield pulled out a gun and shot Coffin and Hartnett, Assistant Attorney General Lisa Bogue said. While the other men ran off, Osborne, who police say planned the attack, stayed on the scene, according to court documents.

Bogue said Butterfield wanted to earn “street cred” and told the jury that Butterfield and Osborne were in the same gang. In closing arguments Friday morning, she referenced testimony from MacDonald and a corrections officer who said Butterfield was proud of the shootings.

It’s a story the state was only able to pull together “inch by inch,” Bogue said.

“They had to start from a whodunnit, to a car, to people, to guns, to a gun,” she told the jury Friday.

Over five days of testimony, the state called on two eyewitnesses, including MacDonald, who was the only one to identify Butterfield as the shooter. Hartnett, the state’s first witness, said she couldn’t clearly see her shooter’s face on the dark, poorly lit street, but she knew he was tall and he was wearing what looked like a black sweater with red lettering.

Prosecutors also played surveillance footage showing Butterfield, MacDonald and Geisinger near MacDonald’s apartment shortly after the shooting, exiting the same vehicle that had been parked by the scene. They showed the jury the clothes Butterfield was wearing when he was arrested later that day, clothes that Bogue said matched Hartnett’s description.

But Butterfield’s attorneys argued the state’s case “skipped over” a lot of inconsistencies.

His lawyer, James Howaniec, told the jury that the state lacks DNA evidence tying Butterfield to the gun, which Geisinger owned.

And he argued that the clothes Butterfield was wearing when he was arrested – a black jacket and a multicolored T-shirt with red in it – don’t perfectly match what Hartnett described.

He also cast doubt on MacDonald’s credibility and intentions. MacDonald, who was facing felony murder and robbery charges, pleaded guilty to a lesser charge of hindering apprehension in April. Prosecutors agreed to dismiss the other charges in exchange for his testimony.

‘NOBODY MADE ME DO ANYTHING’

Bogue and Howaniec spent a lot of time going over a recording of an interview detectives had with Butterfield at the York County Jail on May 4, 2022, before anyone was charged in Coffin’s death.

Butterfield never admits to being the shooter, or being involved, in the interview, which jurors watched on Tuesday. But prosecutors said Butterfield’s various statements contradict his defense attorneys’ arguments that he was manipulated and used by three older men as their fall guy.

Butterfield told the detectives “nobody can rope me into anything, nobody made me do anything.” He said he was in a gang, referencing his several face tattoos.

“This is not the face or the words of the person described to you by the defense in their opening,” Bogue said in her closing arguments Friday morning. “This is not some ‘man child’ susceptible to manipulation. There’s no evidence that he’s mentally ill, no evidence that he was going to be played by older men.”

Howaniec disagreed. He told the jury the video shows how immature his client is, that he’s more of a “gangster wannabe.”

“We see how immature Damion is. He thinks he’s a tough gangster, he’s trying to outwit the veteran detectives. But he ain’t no gangster,” Howaniec said. “He’s a scared young kid with a very troubled past who’s just been taken advantage of by three older men, and now two veteran police detectives are playing with his mind.”

Howaniec said the detectives misled Butterfield about what evidence they actually had. He said they falsely implied they had his DNA on the gun and found gunshot residue on his clothing. Police didn’t have either.

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