Cedar Rapids man escapes work release facility

CEDAR RAPIDS - A Cedar Rapids man sentenced to probation in connection with a 2010 shooting in Iowa City has escaped from his work release facility, according to a release from the Iowa Department of Corrections.

Bernard J. Butler II, now 21, was accused of shooting Cortez Parker, 34, in the abdomen in August 2009 at the now-closed Los Cocos bar. He failed to return to the Lary A. Nelson Center in Cedar Rapids at 12:30 p.m. Tuesday, the release said.

Butler was originally charged with attempted murder, but he pleaded guilty to the two lesser offenses as part of a plea deal. In April 2010 he received a five-year suspended prison sentence with a $750 suspended fine on each count, and he was ordered to serve three years' probation and to report to the work release center.

At his sentencing hearing, Butler apologized for his crime.

“I'm really looking forward to making up for it,” he said at the time.

Butler is African-American with black hair and brown eyes, and he stands 5 feet 10 inches tall and weighs 186 pounds. The release said he has an unfinished tattoo that reads “only the” on his back, along with a separate tattoo of a bulldog with crossbones on his right shoulder.