Father and Son Plead No Contest To 'Cold, Calculated Murder' At Forestville Cabin

Two defendants in a marijuana-related triple homicide near Forestville two years ago pleaded no contest Friday in Sonoma County Superior Court to lesser charges in return for lower prison sentences.

Odin Leonard Dwyer, 40, of Denver, Colo., pleaded no contest to 15 felonies, including three counts of involuntary manslaughter, in return for a 20-year prison sentence.

His father Francis Raymond Dwyer, 67, of Truth or Consequences, N.M., pleaded no contest to five felonies, including being an accessory to murder, in return for an 8-year prison term.

A third defendant, Mark William Cappello, 48, of Central City, Colo. is charged with the murders of Raleigh Butler, 26, a former Sonoma County resident who was living in Truckee in 2013; Richard Lewin, 46, of Huntington, N.Y. and Todd Klarkowski, 42, of Boulder, Colo.

The murders occurred when Butler tried to sell the marijuana to the three defendants on Feb. 5, 2013 at his mother’s cabin near Forestville, according to the Sonoma County Sheriff’s Office.

The Sonoma County District Attorney’s Office alleges the three victims were inside the cabin processing marijuana for transportation by Cappello and the Dwyers when Cappello shot them in the head. All three victims died at the scene.

Odin Dwyer also was inside the cabin, and Francis Dwyer waited at a motel room, according to testimony at Cappello’s preliminary hearing.

At the hearing, sheriff’s detective Brandon Cutting testified that Odin Dwyer told him in an interview that the three victims were packaging 100 pounds of marijuana when he heard three shots and saw Cappello at the foot of a bed with his arm extended and a gun in his hand. Odin Dwyer said Cappello told him, “it had to be done,” according to Cutting’s testimony.

The three defendants then split the pot into thirds and left Sonoma County in two vehicles, Dwyer told Cutting.

Cappello was arrested in Mobile, Ala. on Feb. 14, 2013 and the Dwyers were arrested in Colorado on March 1, 2013. The Dwyers have agreed to testify truthfully at Cappello’s Sonoma County Superior Court trial in September and will be sentenced at its conclusion, Ravitch said.

The murder charges against Cappello include special circumstances of lying in wait, murder for financial gain, murder during a residential burglary and murder of multiple victims, subjecting Cappello to capital punishment.

“This was a cold, calculated murder of three unarmed men,” Ravitch said.

“After continued evaluation of the facts of this terrible crime, it was determined that these pleas reflect the level of culpability of these defendants,” Ravitch said.

--Bay City News

--Shutterstock image

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