TRIAL BEGINS FOR SE MAN ACCUSED OF KILLING POLICE INFORMANT

A Southeast Washington man, who allegedly used his boots as a murder weapon,
went on trial yesterday in the killing of a D.C. police informant.

Renaldo Antonio Mathis has acknowledged delivering a kick to the head of
Eric Butera. But Mathis contends that he did so only to see if Butera was
still alive after he was beaten by other assailants. Prosecutors maintain
that Mathis's repeated blows were deliberate and led to Butera's death in
1997 and have charged him with second-degree murder while armed.

The trial in D.C. Superior Court revisits the low point of the police
investigation into the July 1997 killings of three employees at a Starbucks
coffee shop near Georgetown. At the time of his death, Butera was helping
D.C. police gather information that he thought might lead them to the
Starbucks killer.

Hoping to collect a $100,000 reward, Butera contacted D.C. police four
months after the Starbucks killings and told detectives that he had
overheard people who had information about the slayings. He said the
conversations took place in a row house in Southwest Washington where he had
bought cocaine.

D.C. police provided Butera with $150 in marked bills and sent him to the
row house Dec. 4, 1997, to buy drugs. The plan called for Butera to buy
cocaine and then for police to get a warrant, enter the house and question
the people there. Detectives said they dropped Butera off near the row house
in the 1000 block of Delaware Avenue SW and waited in unmarked cars a block
or two away.

In opening remarks to the jury, Assistant U.S. Attorney Kenneth L. Wainstein
said the operation fell apart when Butera wasn't admitted into the house.
Then, as Butera walked away, he was accosted, beaten and robbed by two men.
Wainstein identified those two assailants as Keith Mathis and Robert Walker,
both of whom have pleaded guilty to lesser charges in the case. Keith Mathis
is Renaldo Mathis's brother, and Walker is the Mathises' nephew.

Although Renaldo Mathis did not take part in the robbery, Wainstein said
that he came by soon afterward, when Butera was lying dazed on the ground.

"The real story here is this man, Renaldo Mathis, took his feet and stomped
the life out of another human being," Wainstein said, gesturing at Mathis,
35, who registered no expression. "He did it for no reason. Over and over
again, up and down, he stomped his work boots on Mr. Butera's head."

Defense attorney Donald Dworsky maintained that Butera was killed by Walker
and Keith Mathis and that Renaldo Mathis had nothing to do with the death.

According to authorities, the people in the row house had no information
that proved useful to the Starbucks case, and the Mathises and Walker had no
connection to the triple killings, either. Last month, police arrested Carl
Derek Havord Cooper and charged him with first-degree murder. Cooper has
pleaded not guilty and is awaiting
trial.

After a history of cocaine use, the 31-year-old Butera was trying to regain
control of his life, Wainstein said. Police followed routine procedures in
setting up the drug buy, he said. But it wasn't until a neighborhood
resident called 911, 25 minutes after Butera was dropped off, that police
realized what had happened. The first witness yesterday, Detective Anthony
Brigidini, said he drove by the row house to keep track of Butera but the
area was not lighted.

Butera's mother, Terry Butera, has filed a $115 million civil lawsuit
against D.C. police, claiming that authorities failed to protect her son.