My Name’s Sharell, I’m A Pisces, And A Serial Killer
Teen charged in savage slayings is innocent, says a somber father
BY BARRY PADDOCK, RYAN STRONG and JONATHAN LEMIRE
Fifteen-year-old Sharell Butler has been charged with two savage murders, but the baby-faced Bloods gang member is still her daddy’s little girl.
The teen’s father, James Butler, defended her a day after she was arraigned for dismembering one man and helping kill another in a pair of drug-related slayings.
“[Our] families are devastated,” Butler said Sunday. “I feel sorry for the victims and their families.”
Asked whether his daughter was innocent of the brutal slayings, the dad replied, “Yes, I would believe so.”
Sharell Butler, a lanky teen known on the street as Lady Red, was charged with murder, manslaughter and assault in the death of John Hopkins Drago, adopted son of a Bronx family.
Investigators believe Butler and Robert Pastore, 19, stabbed Drago 40 to 50 times as revenge for talking to cops about a robbery that Pastore committed last year, police sources said.
Drago, 22, who had a history of drug arrests and was estranged from his family, had not been reported missing.
His mutilated body, stuffed into a plastic bag, was found in a Pelham Parkway apartment Dec. 21.
Butler was also charged with second-degree murder and robbery in a Dec. 19 home invasion that led to the fatal shooting of Christopher Umpierrie, a 24-year-old whom she and another suspect had intended to rob.
As Umpierrie bled to death, Butler allegedly took his cash and marijuana, sources said.
“We are very distraught right now after what happened,” said a woman who identified herself as Umpierrie’s grandmother outside his Throgs Neck home.
Detectives are investigating whether Butler is linked to other recent drug-related killings.
Butler, who is being held without bail, will be charged as an adult for both crimes.
Residents of Butler’s apartment building in Morris Park were stunned at the news that the seemingly friendly teenager was responsible for two cold-blooded murders.
“She’s a good kid,” said one woman who refused to give her name. “I don’t think she could do that.”
“She plays with my grandkids,” the woman said. “She’s like my granddaughter.”
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