Convicted murderer may have violated parole

? The Kansas Parole Board on Tuesday will decide whether a man convicted in the 1973 stabbing death of a Topeka woman has violated his parole.

James Elder is set to appear at a parole revocation hearing at Hutchinson Correctional Facility, where he has been an inmate since Oct. 22, said parole board administrator Libby Scott.

Scott said the board will decide whether Elder committed violations by allegedly failing to report to his parole officer, failing to report a change of address, traveling outside a 50-mile radius of his home and failing to comply with parole conditions regarding electronic monitoring.

If the board concludes Elder violated parole, it could opt to release him or keep him in prison, Scott said.

Elder, 52, was convicted of second-degree murder in the July 1973 slaying in Topeka of 23-year-old Barbara Butler. He was sentenced to 15 years to life.

Evidence showed Butler was stabbed 23 times, with one blow piercing her breastbone and injuring her heart. She later died at a Topeka hospital.

Topeka police said Butler, who had earned a bachelor’s degree in psychology a year earlier and was looking for work, was walking home in the early-morning hours after arguing with her boyfriend and was attacked about a block from her apartment.

Police arrested Elder, then 18, and another man three days after the attack. The other man agreed to testify against Elder in return for not being prosecuted. The man said he was with Elder when they saw Butler walking on the street and that he declined Elder’s offer to help him rape her. The man said he walked away and later heard a woman screaming.

The Topeka Capital-Journal reported that its records showed Elder had been denied parole 19 times. Butler’s father, Robert Butler Jr., and brother, Robert Butler III, appeared at several parole board hearings to ask that Elder stay in prison.