Witness: Cadwallader held pellet gun when killed

BUTTE CREEK CANYON — Valerie Cadwallader, ranting incoherently, was pointing a pellet gun rifle last spring when shot dead with a single round from a Butte County sheriff’s deputy’s assault rifle.

That’s according to Brian Marklund, the owner of the pellet gun and of the property where his friend Cadwallader, 48, was killed May 8 by deputy Tyler Dentinger.

Deputies had earlier used a drone to confirm the rifle was a pellet gun, according to Marklund, who said he heard deputies transmit that it was a “.117 caliber air gun” over their radios.

“I don’t think it was even loaded,” Marklund said.

Marklund said other sheriff’s deputies were in de-escalation mode when Dentinger drove up the driveway of his neighbor’s property. “Less than a minute” after Dentinger’s arrival, Marklund heard “Drop the gun!” shouted and “not three seconds later” came the gunshot.

“That better be a warning shot,” Marklund said he told deputies.

“We don’t do warning shots,” Marklund said a deputy replied.

Marklund estimated at least a dozen officers were present when Cadwallader was shot. He said she had pointed the pellet gun at him and other deputies earlier. Three deputies standing on his property were holding rifles that shoot rubber bullets, he said.  A supervisor was managing the scene and deputies were talking to Cadwallader, calling her “Valerie” and calmly trying to get her to drop the pellet gun.

There was no danger, Marklund claimed.

“When there’s danger, they all shoot,” he said.

Cadwallader was in an elevated position from the deputies. Marklund says Dentinger’s shot—fired from an AR-15 type rifle—came from at least 40 yards away and from behind some trees on the neighbor’s property. A photo published by Action News Now shows a deputy the newscast said was Dentinger crouched behind the open driver’s door of a patrol SUV. Another deputy is pictured taking cover behind the passenger’s door.

Marklund said deputies rejected his offer to sneak behind a structure and then “run around and tackle her ass” when Cadwallader wasn’t looking.

After the shooting, Marklund said the deputies on his property acted “bummed” about the killing. When paramedics wheeled Cadwallader to an ambulance on a stretcher, Marklund could see she had suffered a devastating chest wound.

“Superman’s not going to survive a .223 (caliber round),” he said.

As has been the norm in recent years for officer-involved shootings in Butte County, DA Mike Ramsey and Sheriff KoryHonea have provided little information about the case. Neither identified Dentinger in a public statement.

“Crazy delusional”

Cadwallader’s friends said she used meth and alcohol, and the latter would set her off.

“Two drinks, she’s hammered and going crazy,” Marklund said. “Not even two.”

Cadwallader had a twin sister, Vanessa, and they “look identical,” said 29-year-old Sean Griffin, Valerie’s boyfriend for the past five years and a resident on Marklund’s property in the 11000 block of Butte Creek Island Road.

“She was the most good person you’d ever meet,” said Griffin, wiping his eyes with his T-shirt and displaying the “Valerie” tattooed on his arm.

According to Marklund, Cadwallader, at her death, resided in Forest Ranch and had been visiting his property for three days.

Marklund said he is normally “not a cop caller,” but he summoned deputies around 3 a.m. on May 8, insisting they remove Cadwallader because she was trespassing and “crazy delusional.” She had seen plans for a home Marklund is preparing to build and became convinced they were for a nuclear plant, he said. She also ranted at times about what he described as a bag of excrement, thinking it contained baby bones.

In a cell phone video Marklund provided, he pleads at length with deputies to not leave her on his property, saying, as they depart, it was “a set-up for violence.”

About 12 hours later, around 2:40 p.m., a neighbor called 9-1-1 about a female “threatening someone’s life.” Cadwallader had broken Marklund’s sliding glass door and stolen his pellet gun.

Cadwallader’s outbursts were frequent, and deputies dealt with her countless times, Marklund said. While loud and disruptive, she was not usually violent, though Marklund said she once punched a neighbor in the face.

Many years ago, Cadwallader worked for 11 years as a respiratory therapist in Chico, Marklund said. She also once worked at a fire camp.

“She was a hard-core chick,” he said.

In 2013, she was sentenced to seven years in state prison after her second felony child abuse conviction in two years, according to Butte County Superior Court records. She pleaded no contest to misdemeanor battery in 2023.

Marklund had his own issues with Cadwallader. His request for a temporary restraining order against her was “partly granted” by a judge in August 2023; however, the same request was denied two months later, according to Superior Court records.

Sheriff, DA mum

The Sheriff’s Office’s sole statement was a bare-bones press release the day of the killing, the gist of which was: “… Deputies reported seeing a female subject armed with a rifle. Deputies reported the female pointed the rifle at them and told them to shoot her. A deputy fired one shot at the female from his service rifle.”

Neither Ramsey nor Honea responded to multiple requests for comment about Marklund’s claims regarding the type of gun Cadwallader held and the drone confirmation. After the shooting, Action News Now interviewed neighbors who spoke of a history of alleged problems on the property ranging from violence to drug use to code violations to animal control issues.

One neighbor, Steve Alderman, estimated he had called 9-1-1 30 to 35 times and sought help from every state and county agency he could think of, all to no avail.

“This has been a problem property and a nuisance property and now somebody has lost their life,” Alderman told Action News Now.

Second fatal incident

Dentinger, in his ninth year as sheriff’s deputy, has now been involved in the two most recent fatal shootings by the Sheriff’s Office. On Jan. 28, 2019, he was one of nine deputies who shot a total of 63 rounds at Richard Moulton, who was accused of pointing a gun at deputies. Even though he told investigators he could not see Moulton’s hands, Dentinger fired his handgun six times after other deputies began shooting.

Police expert Seth Stoughton described Dentinger’s action as a “reflex” shooting, aka as “contagious” or “sympathetic” gunfire. Stoughton said reflex fire is not, in most situations, sufficient justification for intentionally using deadly force. 

Honea said all nine deputies acted in accordance with law and department policy.

After a rash of five deputy-involved fatal shootings during the 17-month period from August 2017 to January 2019, the Cadwallader killing was the Sheriff Office’s first in six years. With her death, three of the last five killings have involved a single rifle bullet from a single deputy, including the deaths of Mark Jensen in August 2017 and Larry Siordia eight months later.

In the Jensen incident, deputy Matt Calkins, now Honea’s undersheriff, fired his rifle from nearly 130 yards away while laying prone in an orchard. Calkins, looking through the scope on his rifle, thought the drunken Jensen was about to shoot him with a handgun. Ramsey acknowledged it would have been difficult for Jensen to have seen Calkins, but “not impossible.” Jensen, like Cadwallader, did not fire a gun. Ramsey called the shooting self-defense.

Marklund said Cadwallader was his second friend killed by a Butte County sheriff’s deputy while in mental crisis. In 2014, Robert Battaglia, 28, was shot dead in the Paradise area by deputy Hugh Hooks. Battaglia, who like Marklund was a member of the band Alli Battaglia and The Musical Brewing Co., was reportedly living with paranoid schizophrenia and bipolar disorder.

Dave Waddell contributes regularly to ChicoSol about law enforcement.