BALTIMORE — Charging documents reveal how an orchestrated robbery led to the murder of a 17-year-old Parkville High School student.
It was the night of April 23 when Elias Cieslak was picked up by 18-year-old Bryson Butterfly at the McDonald's in the 7900 block of Belair Road.
Court documents say Cieslak was supposed to sell Butterfly four pounds of marijuana for $8,500.
As the two were making a deal inside Butterfly's Subaru Forester, a pair of men showed up in a black Infiniti Q50 and robbed Cieslak at gunpoint.
Shortly after stealing his drugs, one of the men allegedly shot and killed Cieslak.
Butterfly admitted to being in the area to purchase drugs from Cieslak, but told police he escaped the situation prior to gunshots being fired.
Left behind at the crime scene was a single bullet casing, an empty green duffle bag, and $7,700 in counterfeit money.
Detectives took interest in Cieslak and Butterfly's cell phones, both of which went missing following the robbery and murder.
While sitting for an interview with investigators, Butterfly's phone pinged back to the Riggs Avenue area in West Baltimore, which happens to be where he claimed to live.
After reviewing his call records, detectives discovered Butterfly had been in frequent contact with a second suspect who is 17-years-old.
The two reportedly spoke on the phone for eight minutes, all the way up to when Butterfly picked Cieslak up at the McDonald's.
Surveillance footage apparently shows Butterfly and both robbery suspects arriving there around the same time.
The phones of Butterfly and the 17-year-old also hit off a cell tower near the crime scene at the time of the murder.
This prompted investigators to dig up MVA records on the Infiniti.
On June 13 detectives staked out the address the car was registered to, and saw the 17-year-old get behind the wheel.
After confirming who was driving the Infiniti, police honed in on the teen's phone contacts.
Call records show he was in frequent conversation with a man named David Lofton the night of the murder.
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Both their phones hit off the same cell towers before and after they fled the crime scene.
Lofton, in an interview with police, confessed he and the 17-year-old were responsible for robbing Cieslak. He stopped short, however, of admitting to pulling the trigger. Police still charged him with first degree murder.
Meanwhile Butterfly fled the area and was later arrested in West Virginia. The U.S. Marshals say he was a known horse jockey at Hollywood Casino at Charles Town Races.
Currently Lofton and Butterfly are being held without bail on first degree murder charges. The 17-year-old was also arrested, but WMAR-2 News is withholding his name due to his age.
