Ex-Stanton County Principal Gets Probation For Burning Wife’s Car

A former school principal was sentenced to probation for burning his estranged wife’s car during a confrontation at her home.

Thirty-seven-year-old Craig Butler was sentenced Wednesday in Johnson County Court. He was convicted in June, after he admitted entering his wife’s Olathe home in August 2008 and burning the car while she and her mother were there.

Butler contended that he was mentally ill and hearing voices during the confrontation. Experts agreed at his trial that he had been mentally ill but not enough to meet the legal threshold for not guilty by reason of insanity.

Butler was fired as principal of Stanton County High School in western Kansas after his conviction.