Jury finds Ga. man guilty of murdering Cashiers man

By Lisa Majors-Duff

Killed was Terry Ray Chastain, 43, of Yellow Mountain community, who was responding to a call for help from his neighbor when he encountered Reginal Lewis Butler and Timothy Wiley Jr., both of Atlanta. Chastain suffered at least two gunshot wounds and several blows from a crowbar.

The killing was "especially cruel, atrocious and heinous," District Attorney Charles Hipps said when Butler and Wiley were arrested last year. Chastain's gunshot wounds are believed to have been caused by Wiley, who officers say was armed with a .32-caliber pistol when he entered Potts' home.

According to prosecutors, Butler and Wiley had been asked by Highlands resident Lisa TucciCaselli to rob Chastain's neighbor, Don Wayne Potts. TucciCaselli, the third defendant in the case, still faces charges in connection with Chastain's death.

"The homicide was orchestrated by some of the more powerful drug dealers in the Cashiers and Highlands area," Jackson County Sheriff Jim Cruzan said at the time of the arrests. The jury took about six hours Friday (Oct. 6) to find Wiley guilty of first-degree murder and felony breaking and entering. The judgment carries a mandatory life sentence since prosecutors chose not to seek the death penalty.

Butler, who pleaded guilty to first-degree murder in April in an effort to avoid a death sentence, is currently serving life in prison without chance of parole.

Back to Archive: 10/12/00.