MASON COUNTY, Mich. (Feb. 25, 2014)– It took the jury less than two hours to find Eric Knysz guilty on all counts related to the killing of Trooper Paul Butterfield last September.
Butterfield’s fianceé, Jennifer Sielski, has been in court every step of the way, and despite how hard the testimony was to hear, sometimes she said she just had to be there.
She even says she found comfort in hearing from those witnesses who came to Butterfield’s aid just minutes after the shooting.
“Knowing that they just wanted to help somebody they didn’t know and try, just try as much as they could to help him it makes you realize that there is good in the world,” Sielski said.
It was obvious in court Tuesday how many lives Trooper Butterfield touched, including the dozens of officers that showed up to support his family.
“There’s a lot of pieces to Paul’s personality, and I think that the major piece of that was his sense of humor. It was just that power that he had to put a smile on your face,” Sielski said.
Sielski says while justice has been served it will never bring her fiancé back, back but she finds strength in what she has learned from him.
“I asked Paul to give me some strength that he had and I only do what I think he would want me to do and that is to be strong for him and be strong for myself and so ya know, I think some of that maybe rubbed off on me and I’ll take it because I need it,” she said.
