Parents of Slain Parkville Teen Sue Man Accused of Orchestrating Deadly Drug Deal
The parents of a murdered Parkville teen have filed a wrongful death civil lawsuit in Baltimore County against the man who orchestrated the drug deal that led to their son’s killing.
Bryson Butterfly, 21, is serving a 20-year sentence for a conviction of conspiracy to commit armed robbery related to the ambush and shooting death of 17-year-old Elias Cieslak on April 23, 2023, near a McDonald’s on the 7900 block of Belair Road.
Cieslak, a senior at Parkville High School, was two weeks away from his high school graduation when he died. Police said he was trying to sell Butterfly four pounds of marijuana when the deal turned deadly.
Butterfly, who was an up-and-coming apprentice horse jockey, was originally charged with murder and armed robbery. Those charges were dropped in a plea deal.
The lawsuit, filed Friday in Baltimore County Circuit Court, alleges that Butterfly played a central role in setting up the fatal encounter by arranging the drug deal as a pretext for an armed robbery. It claims his actions directly led to Elias Cieslak’s death by placing him in a situation where violence was not only foreseeable but likely, and seeks to hold him financially liable for financial and emotional damages his parents incurred resulting from their son’s death.
Butterfly knew that his co-conspirators were dangerous men, according to the complaint, and "would pose an unreasonable risk of harm to anyone involved in a confrontation with either of them."
The shooter, according to prosecutors, was Marcus William Powell Jr. Powell, who was 17 at the time of his arrest, was charged as an adult and sentenced to life in prison, with all but 40 years suspended, after a guilty plea.
Another defendant, David Lofton, 35, was sentenced after trial to 50 years in prison on charges of first-degree murder, armed robbery, and other related offenses. His case is being appealed, according to court records.
Police have said Butterfly arranged to buy marijuana from Cieslak but was working in coordination with Lofton and Powell to ambush and rob his friend.
“Mr. Lofton and Mr. Powell did not know Mr. Cieslak and did not know he even existed,” the civil complaint reads. “But for Defendant Butterfly luring Mr. Cieslak into an armed robbery, Mr. Cieslak would not have been killed.”
The wrongful death suit claims Butterfly saw Lofton and Powell with an AR-15 rifle and a Glock 9mm handgun as they were leaving to commit the robbery. Butterfly drove to the meetup in his Subaru Forester, following Lofton and Powell in another car. Butterfly picked up Cieslak at the McDonald’s. As Cieslak got into Butterfly’s car, the other two men opened the back doors, which, the lawsuit says, Butterfly intentionally left unlocked.
Butterfly then got out of his car and ran as the robbery began. He was not present when the fatal shot was fired. When Cieslak tried to jump out of the Subaru, Lofton “was there to push him back in,” according to the complaint. Powell shot and killed Cieslak. Butterfly fled and was later apprehended in West Virginia.
The complaint alleges Butterfly’s orchestration of the armed robbery exposed Cieslak to deadly violence and constituted “independent, intentional, and malicious wrongdoing.”
The complaint also says the conspiracy was illegal and inherently dangerous and that Butterfly knew the natural consequence of the armed robbery “including showing up to a dark alley with an AR-15 and a Glock 9 mm to rob someone of $8,500 worth of the product would be that Mr. Cieslak would be shot and potentially killed.”
Montgomery County Attorney Jonathan Carroll represents Cieslak’s parents, Crystal Maenner and Juan Carlos Cieslak. Carroll writes in the filing that Elias Cieslak committed no act of negligence that contributed to the “breach, damages, or causation in this case.”
The nine-count complaint asks for monetary damages for the financial and emotional harms suffered by Cieslak’s parents and demands a jury trial.