Bond set for Macon woman charged with murder, accused of assembling posse to rescue girl
As early as 7:15 a.m. Feb. 19, an 11-year-old girl was trying to reach family members for help.
The girl, who lives with her grandmother in McDonough, had been in Macon visiting family when she says 29-year-old Levi Moss asked her if she knew about “the birds and the bees” and showed her a pornographic video on his cellphone. Then, she says he molested her.
After talking with the girl just before 7:40 a.m., the girl’s grandmother and other family reached out to relatives in Macon, trying to find someone to retrieve the child.
Yolanda Butler was at the Macon probation office for her boyfriend’s appointment just after 8 a.m. when she agreed to go get the girl, said Debra Gomez, Butler’s lawyer.
Butler, her boyfriend Seymour Passard, and Ceyunta Cater are charged with murder in the beating death of Sylvester Harden Jr. Moss is charged with child molestation, enticing a child for indecent purposes and a probation violation.
In her argument Thursday for bond to be set for 25-year-old Butler, Gomez argued her client didn’t go into Harden’s Nisbet Avenue house with Passard and Cater to retrieve the girl. She didn’t know Harden, Moss’s cousin, had been beaten until after they left.
Prosecutor John Regan said Moss told authorities two masked men with guns burst into the house just before 9 a.m. and beat Harden unconscious. Harden, 40, died hours later at a local hospital.
Butler drove the men to the house and then away after the beating, he said.
Gomez said her client didn’t see the men don masks or with guns when they went into the house.
“She is adamant she was there to save” the girl, Gomez said.
Harden’s children -- three 8-year-olds and a 6-year-old -- were at the house during the beating and are “traumatized,” Regan said.
Harden yelled for the children to run next door during the attack, authorities have said.
“A man lost his life when a quick call to police could hopefully have prevented that,” Regan said.
He opposed a bond being set.
Gomez argued that not calling police doesn’t make Butler guilty of murder.
She described Butler as a lifelong Macon resident who works two jobs while caring for her 3-year-old daughter. She’s a junior at Middle Georgia State College, working on a psychology degree.
Her mind was on getting the 11-year-old girl.
“She is very sorry that Mr. Harden was murdered,” Gomez said.
‘WHO DID YOU BEAT UP?’
Passard, Butler’s 23-year-old boyfriend, pleaded guilty to false imprisonment in 2011 and was sentenced as a first offender to serve six years on probation. He also was ordered to complete 140 hours of community service and get his GED within 18 months, according to Bibb County Superior Court records.
His probation was revoked March 5 -- he hadn’t completed his GED and he was charged in Harden’s slaying, records show.
Gomez said Passard, after learning two men were in the house with the 11-year-old girl, suggested they pick up Cater, 22, on the way.
After arriving at the house, Butler stayed in the car and tried to calm the “terrified” girl after she came out, Gomez said.
Inside the house, Cater and Passard allegedly asked a man where they could find Moss. Unbeknownst to them, the man they were talking with was Moss, and he pointed them in Harden’s direction, Gomez said.
Outside, Butler saw Moss walk out of the house.
On the way to a McDonald’s restaurant to meet the girl’s grandmother, Butler noticed blood on Passard and asked him what happened, Gomez said.
Passard replied that they had beaten Moss. She corrected him, saying she’d seen Moss leave, Gomez said.
Butler asked him, “Who did you beat up? What did you do?” Gomez said.
Although authorities contend a gun belonging to Butler was used inside the house, Gomez said the gun wasn’t Butler’s. Authorities have said Harden was pistol-whipped during the attack, and a gun fired. The bullet didn’t hit anyone.
Several of Butler’s family members sat in the courtroom, along with one member of Harden’s family, to support Butler during the hearing.
Before ruling on the request for bond, Judge Verda Colvin asked the representative from Harden’s family why she supported Butler.
Diane Rivers replied, “I think it was just a misunderstanding that these two guys went in there and done that. If she knew that they had done that, at that moment, she would have called the police.
“I think her main concern was about the little girl getting out of the house.”
Colvin granted Butler a $250,000 bond, saying that Butler being a contributing member of society played a role in not denying bond.
“From now on, when there is an issue, call the police,” Colvin said.
This story was originally published March 12, 2015 at 4:43 PM with the headline "Bond set for Macon woman charged with murder, accused of assembling posse to rescue girl ."