Des Moines man sentenced to 55 years in prison for sexual abuse in Polk, Story counties

A Des Moines man has been sentenced to a total of up to 55 years in prison after being convicted of sexually abusing minors in Polk and Story counties. In both cases, he had met the minors on SnapChat.

On Friday in Polk County, Matthew Akeem Butts, 36, entered an Alford guilty plea -- acknowledging the evidence against him -- to charges of 3^rd-degree sexual abuse and extortion. District Judge David Nelmark sentenced Mr. Butts to 10 years in prison, which will run consecutively to the Story County sentence. The defendant must also serve a special sentence of probation for the rest of his life and be placed on the sex offender registry. The plea deal was a joint effort with the Polk and Story county attorney’s offices.

Mr. Butts was accused of sexually abusing a 14-year-old girl in late 2022 and early 2023 after meeting her on SnapChat. He was also accused of taking video of her and threatening to share the images if she did not continue to meet with him.  

On Aug. 12, Butts was sentenced in Story County to 45 years in prison for two counts of third-degree sexual abuse and distributing drugs to a minor. The sentence includes a mandatory-minimum sentence of five years in prison. In that case, Butts was accused of meeting a 13-year-old girl from Roland on SnapChat in December 2022.

The victim in the Polk County case and her mother spoke of the impact of the crime.

“My life has been filled with fear and paranoia that you wouldn’t get,” the victim said to the defendant.

The girl’s personality dramatically changed after the offenses and she began having difficulty in school, the mother said. “She was no longer the happy, chatty, creative person she had been just a few months earlier,” she said.

“We all warn our children about bad people, and in today’s day and age, we warn our kids about the dangers of social media, but we never really believe that ‘our kids’ are going to be victims of online predators,” she told the court.

Addressing the defendant, the mother said: “You made my daughter feel unsafe. You made my daughter feel scared. You took advantage of my daughter when she was at a vulnerable age. And for a short time, you took my daughter away from me.”

The Polk County case was prosecuted by Assistant County Attorney Meggan Guns and assisted by Kayla McKee. West Des Moines Police Officer James Paup led the investigation.

The Story County case was prosecuted by Assistant County Attorney Tiffany Meredith and investigated by Detective Anthony Rhoad and the Story County Sheriff’s Office.