Metro officer's brother to stand trial for murder

The brother of a Metro Police officer, who is the son of a fire department captain, has been ordered to stand trial on charges he beat a drug dealer to death with a baseball bat and hid the body in the desert.

Michael Overson was ordered by Justice of the Peace Marley Robinson on Thursday to appear Feb. 18 for arraignment on a murder charge in District Judge Kathy Hardcastle's courtroom.

The key witness at the preliminary hearing was a prostitute with two felony drug convictions who said she witnessed the slaying of Francis Butler in March or April after she, the victim and the defendant had been using drugs for three days.

While she identified Overson in court as the killer, Deputy Public Defender Drew Christensen said she originally couldn't pick out his picture from a photo lineup.

Christensen said the witness also told police in June that the killer had a tattoo on his chest and arm while Overson has no tattoos.

But the woman knew Overson's first name, where he lived and what kind of truck he drove.

A clerk at the Knotty Pine Motel, at Lake Mead and Nellis boulevards, did pick out Overson's photo as that of a man he had seen with prostitutes and drug dealers in the area where the victim plied his trade.

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