The couple whose San Luis Obispo home was searched in 2019 in connection to former San Luis Obispo Police Chief Deanna Cantrell's missing gun will serve jail time after entering pleas during court appearances Tuesday.
The San Luis Obispo County District Attorney’s Office says Cheyne Orndoff and his wife, Vanessa Bedroni, each pleaded no contest to a misdemeanor count of child endangerment.
The DA’s office says the charge is for “the severely unsafe conditions of their residence, including methamphetamine and heroin being kept where children were easily able to touch or ingest them.”
Bedroni also pleaded no contest to possession of heroin. Orndoff pleaded no contest to possession of methamphetamine and, in a companion case, possession of heroin.
The two were arrested during a July 10, 2019 search even though it was determined Orndoff did not take Cantrell's gun, which she had left in the restroom of a San Luis Obispo restaurant that same day.
Police said during the search, they found drugs and drug paraphernalia in the “filthy” home, and the couple was subsequently charged with felony child endangerment.
As KSBY previously reported, when police searched the home, they were acting on probation information because police generally have the authority to search the home of a probationer without a search warrant; however, it was later determined the probation information was apparently entered into the database by mistake.
Orndoff rejected a plea deal last year. His attorney called the search unlawful.
“The main focus of our prosecution in this matter was to protect the health, safety and welfare of the two children,” District Attorney Dan Dow said in a press release Tuesday. “This resolution accomplishes that goal and allows a sufficient time of supervised probation and mandatory counseling to ensure further safeguards for the children.”
The couple’s daughters were reportedly ages 7 and 9 at the time of the search.
When sentenced on April 13, the DA’s Office says the couple will serve 60 days in county jail, be placed on formal probation for four years, complete a one-year parenting class, and submit to search and seizure and chemical testing.
The man who did find the police chief's gun in the restaurant's restroom came forward and turned it in the next day. No charges were filed.
