Editor’s note: This article was updated at 4:09 p.m.
BARRE — Jody Herring pleaded not guilty in Washington Superior Court on Tuesday to three charges of aggravated murder related to the shooting deaths of her relatives.
The Attorney General’s Office says Herring, 40, killed two female cousins and an aunt on Aug. 7 at a farmhouse in Berlin. According to the state medical examiner, Julie Ann Falzarano, 73, Rhonda Herring, 48, and Regina Herring, 43, were shot with a hunting rifle.
David Sleigh, the attorney representing Herring under contract with the Defender General’s Office, entered three not guilty pleas for Herring at her arraignment. Each charge of aggravated murder — the most serious murder charge under Vermont law — carries a minimum sentence of life in prison.
Kelly Green, who works for the Defender General’s Office, said she is assisting Sleigh’s private firm in Herring’s case. Green served as Herring’s public defender during the late hours of Aug. 7, when she persuaded a judge to declare that the state was violating the Public Defender Act.
Herring was arraigned on Aug. 10 for first-degree murder in the shooting death of state social worker Lara Sobel. Herring shot Sobel, 48, twice at close range outside a Department for Children and Families office in Barre before standing over her body while yelling about losing custody of her 9-year-old daughter, court records say.
Herring is being held without bail. As part of the arraignment Tuesday, she has been ordered not to have contact in writing, by phone, via email or through a third party with the families of any of the victims, or anyone who works for the Department for Children and Families.
There are 13 other listed names of people she may not be in contact with, including her 20-year-old daughter, Desiree Herring, who was in the audience on Tuesday, and Regina Herring’s daughter Tiffany Herring, who the Burlington Free Press reports found the three women’s bodies on Aug. 8 when she went to check on them.
Herring also may not contact her ex-boyfriend, Henry Premont, who told police that Herring stole his gun to commit the four murders, according to the affidavit filed Thursday in the triple-aggravated-murder case. Premont also told police that Herring had a “hit list” with relatives’ names on it, including her mother.
Cousins told police that, on the day of the four women’s deaths, Herring had been scouting people on the “hit list.” She parked outside her mother’s house, fumbled with something in her lap and left, according to witness accounts in the affidavit.
John Treadwell, the lead prosecutor on the case for the Attorney General’s Office, said Herring was charged with first-degree murder in Sobel’s death because it happened at a different time and place from the alleged murders of Herring’s three relatives. The sentence for first-degree murder is 35 years to life in prison.
But Treadwell said the two separate crimes — aggravated murder of three relatives plus the first-degree murder of the social worker — are being treated as one for purposes of gathering evidence.
The cases now enter the discovery process, which means prosecutors will search through records for information to prove that Herring committed all four murders.
Judge Kevin Griffin ordered that, as part of the discovery process, all records from the Department for Children and Families would be sealed from public view, but not from parties in the case.
Sleigh requested the documents be sealed immediately once he started representing Herring, and again following a document-based VTDigger article on Herring’s mental health, her child custody battles and her allegations of having suffered domestic abuse.
On Aug. 14, Sleigh requested an investigation into why the court gave mental health documents to VTDigger. Sleigh declined to comment about Herring’s mental health, but he called the release “erroneous” Tuesday.
According to documents from family court in Washington County, Herring had a bipolar disorder diagnosis from a family doctor in 2010, and it substantially impacted her ability to socialize and hold down a job. In June, when she was stopped for drunk driving, Herring told police she was taking an antidepressant. On Aug. 7, police officers said Herring was “calm and laughing” about Sobel’s death.
Treadwell requested a competency hearing at the Aug. 10 arraignment in Sobel’s killing, but Judge Griffin denied it for lack of evidence. Treadwell did not request a competency hearing Tuesday.
Treadwell said the prosecution reserves the right to request a competency hearing at any point in the court process.
A competency hearing would help the court address whether Herring understands what’s going on during the trial, an entirely separate legal doctrine than entering an insanity plea. An insanity plea deals with whether the accused was competent when committing a crime.
“This is going to be a complicated case,” Sleigh told reporters.
