A federal judge has sentenced 21-year-old Treyson Sharp to 24 months in prison after he pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter for the December 2024 death of 19-year-old Jadie Butterfly on the Blackfeet Reservation.
The sentencing took place in federal court in Great Falls on March 20, following a plea agreement reached in October 2025, when Sharp changed his plea and prosecutors agreed to dismiss a separate firearm charge.
Aneesa Coomer reports - watch the video here:
Under the terms of the agreement, Sharp pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter. In addition to the prison term, he was ordered to serve two years of supervised release and pay a $5,000 fine.
The 24-month sentence was on the higher end of the recommended guideline range, while defense attorneys had requested an 18-month sentence. Sharp will not be taken into immediate custody and is expected to self-report at a later date.
From court documents:
On the night of December 28, 2024, the defendant, Treyson Lee Sharp, invited his girlfriend 19-year-old Jane Doe to his family home for dinner. After dinner, they retired to his bedroom where Sharp showed Doe his Christmas presents, including a pair of .357 revolvers. While playing with the firearms, the defendant pointed the revolver at Doe and discharged the firearm, striking Doe in the neck.
Sharp immediately yelled for help. Family members who were in the home responded. One called 911 and one rendered medical aid to Doe. Sharp was so hysterical he had to be removed from the room and was heard on the 911 call screaming for help. Doe died at the scene. Law enforcement responded to the home. In interviews with witnesses, they reported hearing Sharp and Doe laughing in the room immediately before hearing a single shot and then Sharp yelling for help.
Law enforcement recovered four firearms at the scene: two .357 revolvers, a .44 revolver, and a modified shotgun. Law enforcement located a bullet hole in Sharp’s bedroom wall. Law enforcement recovered a spent projectile outside the house and found a brass casing in the wall. The casing was forensically matched to one of the recovered .357 revolvers. The cylinder of the fired revolver had six chambers: five were empty and one contained a spent casing.
In multiple interviews, Sharp told law enforcement that he and Doe were playing with the .357 revolvers, which he believed to be empty, when one went off. At first Sharp said that he had been taking it from Doe when it discharged but eventually reported to law enforcement that they were playing “western” and he was across the room when it happened.
Sharp stated, “I didn’t know it was loaded – none of my guns are ever loaded when I bring them in. I don’t know what happened or how it got in there, but we were dueling, and I did it…I’ve done it before with friends… it went off, she went down…I didn’t know it was in there.” He said that he did not remember if his finger hit the trigger, but he did remember pulling the hammer back.
During the hearing, several family members and friends of Butterfly delivered victim impact statements describing the lasting emotional toll of her death.
One close friend of Jadie, Autumn Bremner, said she attended the hearing to speak on Jadie’s behalf. “I’m here to kind of advocate and speak on her behalf since she can’t,” Bremner said.
After sentencing, Bremner said, “I don’t think I’ll be satisfied with any amount of time that’s given, because I don’t think there’s any time that will satisfy us with her being gone. I do think it's a big step that he finally got some jail time.”
Another friend, Richelle Cobell, said reading her victim impact statement in court was difficult, but she felt it was important. “I was asked to read today and it was really hard, but I’m glad that I was able to do that and give help in a way,” she said.
She also spoke about the lasting impact of Jadie’s death and her struggle to process the loss, saying, “I don’t think I’m ready to forgive right now, but I hope one day I’ll be able to be in a place where I could forgive Treyson for what he did to her.”
Butterfly’s loved ones described her as a bright presence, saying her absence has left a permanent void.
“Whenever she walked into a room, she was a big light. And that light is forever taken. And no sentence will ever bring her back,” Cobell says, “What happened to Jadie does not define who she is. At the end of the day, she was a beautiful, bright, smart, funny, intelligent girl that deserved to live her whole life, and it saddens me that she wasn’t able to.”
Cobell and other friends also spoke about hoping this case encourages future cases to be taken more seriously, adding, “I hope this doesn’t happen again. And I hope if it does happen again on the reservation that it’s taken more seriously and a consequence is given sooner and without such a fight, because there’s no reason that her family and friends should have fought as hard as we had to.”
Sharp also gave a statement in court apologizing to Jadie and her family.
