Murder charge dropped for Northern California woman who shot husband on Christmas
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- Butte County prosecutors dropped a murder charge against a Palermo woman.
- Prosecutors said she shot and killed her husband at their home on Christmas.
- She told investigators she shot him in an act of self-defense.
The Butte County District Attorney’s Office on Wednesday dropped a murder charge against a Palermo woman who shot and killed her husband in what prosecutors said was an act of self-defense on Christmas morning.
Julie Castaneda, 34, who was initially charged with murder with the use of a firearm in the death of her husband 38-year-old Carlos Castaneda, had been held in custody for nearly two weeks at the Butte County Jail.
Shortly after the deadly shooting, the wife refused to answer questions from investigating Butte County sheriff’s deputies. Prosecutors said she invoked her right to an attorney and was subsequently arrested and later formally charged with murder.
Her arraignment was held Dec. 29 in Butte Superior Court, and she was ordered to remain in custody ineligible for bail.
Butte County District Attorney Mike Ramsey said investigators suspected the shooting death might be the result of domestic violence and a claim of self-defense. Without a statement from Julie Castaneda, Ramsey said any past abuse or self-defense remained mere speculation.
“Self-defense cannot simply be assumed,” Ramsey said in a news release. “Absent a statement from the suspect or independent facts supporting it, the law does not allow that presumption.”
Wife finally speaks to investigators
Prosecutors and her defense attorney convinced Julie Castaneda to speak to investigators on Monday.
Prosecutors said the District Attorney’s Office had withheld all reports and evidence from the crime scene, which is generally handed over to defense attorneys shortly after arraignment, to ensure any statement from her was not prompted by her attorney or prevent any attempts to falsely conform any statement to the evidence.
In the evening hours before the fatal shooting, the Castanedas attended a Christmas Eve party where multiple witnesses saw the husband drinking alcohol and behaving drunkenly and belligerently toward other guests, according to the DA’s news release. Witnesses told investigators that the wife insisted on leaving the party early to drive her husband and their three children home.
Witnesses did not see any physical altercation between the husband and his wife at the party, but there was some corroborating evidence that suggested prior physical abuse within the relationship.
Prosecutors said many of the couple’s acquaintances were unaware of the domestic abuse. Ramsey said in the news release that domestic violence often occurs in private and may not be known to others, usually kept a secret due to embarrassment or because the involved individuals are unaware they are in the “cycle of violence.”
While she was questioned by investigators on Monday, the wife described a long history of domestic violence. She told investigators they returned home from the Christmas Eve party with their children. The married couple then argued in their bedroom about the husband’s drinking.
She said her husband physically attacked her, climbed on top of her on the bed, grabbed her cellphone from her hands and then put his hands on her throat, according to the DA’s Office. She said she kicked her husband off of her, before she grabbed a handgun she kept on her side of the bed and quickly left their home.
She told investigators she then worried about leaving her husband drunk with their children, ages 8, 14 and 18, in their home where there were other guns stored in a gun safe in the bedroom. Prosecutors said her husband’s own handgun was among the weapons in the gun safe.
Confrontation near gun safe
Julie Castaneda went back into her home. She told investigators she found her husband standing at the gun safe, which was now open. She said Carlos Castaneda turned toward her, before she spotted he was holding his gun and holster and pulling the gun from the holster.
The wife told investigators that she saw her husband coming at her with the gun, feared for her life and rapidly shot him three times in the torso, according to the DA’s news release.
At 2:38 a.m. on Dec. 25, the Butte County Sheriff’s Office received a 911 call from Julie Castaneda. She told dispatchers her husband had been shot.
Deputies arrived at the couple’s home in the 2000 block of Cox Lane in Palermo and found Carlos Castaneda with three gunshot wounds to the torso.
Prosecutors said the deputies found two semi-automatic handguns, one registered to the wife and the other to her husband, on the bedroom floor near the husband’s body. The deputies also found three spent shell casings from the wife’s gun on the floor.
The wife had been performing CPR on her husband when the deputies arrived at their home, according to the DA’s Office. Carlos Castaneda was transported to Enloe Medical Center in Chico, where he was pronounced dead from the gunshot wounds.
Butte DA says statement aligned with evidence
Ramsey said Julie Castaneda’s statement aligned with the physical evidence gathered at the crime scene, showing her account of the fatal shooting was credible.
The DA’s Office and sheriff’s investigators determined there was insufficient evidence to meet the prosecution’s burden of disproving her claim of reasonable self-defense under the law, and the murder charge was dropped in court Wednesday. Julie Castaneda was later released from jail.
“The dismissal of these charges reflects our dedication to applying legal principles fairly and consistently,” Ramsey said in the news release. “We will continue to pursue justice in all cases while recognizing the fundamental right of self-defense when the evidence supports such a determination.”
This story was originally published January 7, 2026 at 3:40 PM.
