Child abuser gets 126 years

A man police found beating his wife and children inside a Costa Mesa motel room in 2005 was sentenced to 126 years in prison Friday, on charges that he had physically and sexually abused his two daughters for several years.

Robert Butterfield, 40, was convicted of 10 counts of forcible lewd acts on a child younger than 14, two counts of sodomy by force, two counts of lewd acts upon a child, and counts of corporal injury to a child, criminal threats and brandishing a deadly weapon in July.

He was sentenced Friday to the maximum penalty.

Prosecutor Tony Ferrentino said family members were relieved it was all over.

“They just wanted to make sure he could never get out again and do this to another family,” he said.

Butterfield had a history of violence and unreported domestic violence against his family, including four children, prosecutors said.

Between June 1996 and June 2005, Butterfield sexually abused one female relative when she was between 7 and 16 years old.

He would punch her in the back of the head and on areas of her body that could be concealed with clothing.

On other occasions, Butterfield stabbed the girl, once leaving a scar on her left shoulder, and he beat her with a rolled extension cord. In June 2004, he punched the girl, then 14, in the nose and eye when she arrived late for dinner.

Family members were silenced by fear, prosecutors said. Between June 2003 and June 2005, Butterfield also sexually abused the first girl’s sister, when she was 11 or 12 years old.

Prosecutors also presented jurors with testimony that Butterfield had continually beat two boys in the family, 4 and 5 years old, and their mother, though charges were not filed for those incidents.

On July 24, 2005, Butterfield and his relatives were staying in a second-story room at the Ana Mesa Motel on Harbor Boulevard in Costa Mesa.

At about 10 p.m., a Costa Mesa police officer passed by the motel, glanced over and saw “something” going on in the room, but he wasn’t sure what, officials said.

The officer turned around to check it out, and soon he heard screams for help from Butterfield’s relatives, prosecutors said.

After backup arrived, officers barged into the room and found the children’s mother beaten and bruised from trying to wrestle away a knife from Butterfield, who had threatened one of the young girls with it. Butterfield, 6-foot-4, was about 275 pounds at the time.

JOSEPH SERNA may be reached at (714) 966-4619 or at [email protected].