Bulls Creek man to find out the length of his sentence on Feb. 10
Rodney Butler has been remanded to jail to await a federal prison sentence on eight charges related to the kidnapping and violent assault of a Scott Siding man in 2021.
Butler, 50, of Bulls Creek, appeared in provincial court for his sentencing hearing on Jan. 13. Crown Prosecutor Rodney Jordan recommended Butler serve 11 years behind bars. Defence Counsel Alex Pate said his client deserved no more than five to seven years.
Chief Judge Brian C. McLean reserved his decision until Feb. 10 at 3 p.m. He remanded Butler to jail to await sentencing by video.
Before sheriffs placed him in handcuffs, Butler asked Judge McLean to allow him time to go home and make custody arrangements for his young son. The judge told Butler that he had months since the guilty verdict to get his affairs in order, and now justice demanded that he go to jail.
“I was prepared to go away for a short time, but not a long time,” Butler said.
As Butler’s family surrounded him for goodbye hugs, the family of his deceased partner sat in court together and wept tears of relief.
Christine Pelletier-Thibodeau died from a gunshot wound to the neck during a shootout outside Butler’s residence on the night of the kidnapping. Her family blames Butler for her death. No charges related to her killing have been laid.
RCMP charged Butler with intentionally discharging a firearm while reckless as to the life and safety of another person, indictable assault, uttering threats, using a handgun to kidnap Chris Demerchant, unlawful confinement, possession of a weapon dangerous to the public peace, possession of a firearm without a licence, and illegal possession of a firearm in a vehicle on Nov. 13, 2021, at Bulls Creek. Butler had a limited prior criminal record.

Judge McLean found him guilty on all eight counts after a five-day trial.
There was testimony during the trial that Butler shot Pelletier-Thibodeau accidentally during the mayhem. Butler refuted that evidence, saying he believed she was shot by one of two intruders on his property who came to rescue Demerchant and fired shots at his house.
Pelletier-Thibodeau was the first to see movement outside their residence. She was armed with a loaded shotgun when she stepped out the basement door and fired several shots into the yard. Minutes later, she fell to the ground, fatally wounded.
Butler told Judge McLean on Monday he took part in the shootout, but he was not responsible for her death.
“I fired at random but they shot her,” Butler contended. “I wish I had stepped out that door first.”
Butler expanded further about the fateful day, revisiting details about picking up Demerchant in Scott Siding, as well as shots fired in the woods at Ryan Purvis, Demerchant’s friend, and the vehicle chase that followed. (Purvis got away but died later in an unrelated drowning in Woodstock).
Much of what Butler told the court on Monday differed from his testimony during his trial. However, he continued to deny the kidnapping took place, noting Demerchant was his friend for 30 years.
“The biggest regret of my life is what transpired,” Butler stated. “I wasn’t the only one involved, but I’m the only one left standing. For three years, this has been hanging over my head. I’ve worked hard and never had any serious problems with the law. I just wish I had stayed home (that day).”
Defence Counsel Alex Pate asked the court to extend compassion to Butler, who was “heartbroken” over the death of his former partner, who “died in his arms.”
“She was a party to the offence, but she didn’t deserve that,” said Pate.
The defence argued Butler’s actions were not pre-meditated, explaining he decided to confront Demerchant on the spur of the moment and while under the influence of drugs. His problem with Demerchant was about an unpaid debt, Pate said, and the situation worsened as the day unfolded.
Crown Prosecutor Rodney Jordan stressed Butler’s crimes were “violent and serious,” leading to a stand-off and shootout, which ended in gunfire and death. He argued Pelletier-Thibodeau’s demise could not be considered a mitigating factor because she was a party to the offences.
During the trial, Chris Demerchant testified he believed he was taken to Butler’s residence at Bulls Creek to be executed.
“He held a gun to my head and told me a human being skinned out looks like a bear skinned out,” Demerchant said during the trial. “I feared for my life.”
Clutching his hat in his hand, Demerchant spoke calmly from the witness stand and went through the events of the day ending in Pelletier-Thibodeau’s death. He testified he was sitting at home at his kitchen table with two friends when Butler and Pelletier-Thibodeau arrived just after supper.
Butler was angry. He stabbed a knife into the table, head-butted Demerchant in the face and pulled out a handgun.
“I said I don’t know who you are,” Demerchant recalled. “He went crazy. He lost his mind.”
At the time, Demerchant and Butler were close friends who worked together to tear apart old vehicles for scrap metal. Butler operated a salvage yard on his Bulls Creek property.
The day before the shooting, Demerchant and another friend, Ryan Purvis (now deceased), were in Butler’s yard when an argument began at the end of the driveway.
Butler and Purvis were yelling at each other about a licence plate. In his statement to the police, Demerchant said he heard Purvis make threats toward Butler. Purvis then left on foot and caught a ride back to Demerchant’s home in Scott Siding. Purvis was living there at the time.
The next day, Butler and Pelletier-Thibodeau showed up at Demerchant’s home looking for Purvis. Demerchant told them Purvis was up the road in the woods near Benton jump starting a car. The two men had spent the day cutting fir tips. Butler said he wanted to go find Purvis.
“He told me I was going with him,” Demerchant testified.
Demerchant said they loaded him into the backseat of Pelletier-Thibodeau’s Ford Escape at gunpoint. Butler sat next to him. As the vehicle started moving, Butler pistol-whipped Demerchant around the head with a nine-millimetre handgun and threatened to shoot him in the knee. Thibodeau was behind the wheel at the time while Butler’s friend, Timothy Grant, was in the front passenger seat.
A few minutes later, they pulled into the wooded area where Purvis was located. Butler got out of the vehicle, and Demerchant heard a series of 10 gunshots. Then, Demerchant saw Purvis speed off in the van he borrowed to boost his car. Butler returned to the backseat of the Ford Escape, and they raced after Purvis toward Scott Siding.
Demerchant said he was “dazed up” and bleeding profusely when he looked up from the backseat and saw he was back home. There was no sign of Purvis. He saw his van parked in the driveway go into reverse, strike a mailbox and go into a ditch.
Demerchant said he tried to get out of the Ford Escape at that point but fell to the ground. Then Butler and Pelletier-Thibodeau attacked him with their boots.
“I took a shit-kicking on the road,” Demerchant told the court. “It was a pretty good beating.”
Demerchant struggled to his feet, and they loaded him back into the Ford Escape. Butler was next to him again in the backseat. Pelletier-Thibodeau was still driving with Timothy Grant in the front passenger seat. They headed for Earle DeLong’s residence at Dead Creek.
Everyone went inside. Butler told Demerchant to go wash the blood off his face. Then Butler took him to the kitchen and sat him on the floor. Pelletier-Thibodeau began poking Demerchant with a shotgun and threatened to cut his throat. Other people were in the room at the time, but no one had said a word about what was happening.
A few minutes later, Butler, Pelletier-Thibodeau, and Demerchant climbed back into the Ford Escape and drove about 20 minutes to Bulls Creek. Timothy Grant was not in the vehicle this time, having left the area on foot.
“I asked them to take me home,” Demerchant said about the ride to Bulls Creek. “I said this is crazy.”
At Butler’s residence, they all went into the basement. Demerchant sat on a wooden chair in the dark. He had a beer and waited. Butler kept the handgun on him while Pelletier-Thibodeau continued to jab him with a shotgun. He looked around the room and saw another gun, noting Butler was ex-military. His phone rang. It was his brother, Troy Demerchant.
“They told me to tell him I’m alright, don’t worry about it,” Demerchant testified. “I had a gun to the side of my head.”
Soon after the phone call, Troy Demerchant drove into Butler’s driveway in his truck. Troy Demerchant shouted for Butler. In response, Pelletier-Thibodeau and Butler both opened fire into the yard. Suddenly, Pelletier- Thibodeau was hit.
“When she got shot, everything went silent,” Chris Demerchant testified. “That’s when I got out of there.”
As Demerchant ran past Pelletier-Thibodeau, he heard her say: “You shot me Rodney.”
“He shot her in the back of the neck,” Demerchant told the court.
Demerchant said he ran outside and down the driveway. His brother, Troy, was still under gunfire when he yelled for him to call 911. Demerchant said he took refuge in a ditch and then went to a neighbour to get a ride home to Scott Siding.
There was no one home when he arrived. He sat by his video surveillance monitor, watched and waited. The next morning, the RCMP was in his yard. They took him to the police station. Paramedics checked him and later went to the hospital for treatment of his injuries. He said his recovery was long and painful.
Demerchant admitted he had a prior criminal record. Several photos of his head, neck and facial injuries were entered into evidence by the crown, along with other photos of a bloody backseat in the Ford Escape, the yard and basement at Butler’s residence and the area outside Demerchant’s house in Scotts Siding.
Under cross-examination, Demerchant testified he did not hear any exchange of gunfire even though a window in a door leading to Butler’s basement was shattered as if someone had shot at the house. Demerchant said he did not know if Purvis was outside with his brother. After Pelletier-Thibodeau was shot, he said he ran for safety. He could still hear gunfire behind him as he fled toward the road.
In rendering his verdict, Judge McLean described the trial as a “saga about the aftermath of a feud” over vehicles for salvage and bad feelings between Butler, Ryan Purvis, and Demerchant that catapulted into violence and revenge.