[B]ARRE — Jody Herring has been charged with three counts of aggravated murder in the shooting deaths of three relatives on Aug. 7.
Herring is accused of killing her cousins Rhonda Herring, 48, and Regina Herring, 43, and her aunt, Julie Falzarano, 73, who lived at a farmhouse on Airport Road in Berlin.
Herring shot the three women with the same bolt-action rifle she used to kill Lara Sobel, a state social worker, according to police records. Sobel, 48, was gunned down at City Place in Barre in front of a number of witnesses.
Officials first charged Herring in the death of Sobel and named her as a “person of interest” in the deaths of the three relatives. The Vermont Attorney General filed the murder charges against Herring for the three alleged homicides on Thursday in Washington Superior Court.
Her arraignment is set for 1 p.m. Tuesday at the courthouse in Barre. David Sleigh, Herring’s attorney, said she will plead not guilty to the new charges.
Police records say officials from the Vermont State Police asked on Aug. 8 to talk to Herring about “an unrelated incident,” presumably the deaths of her three relatives.
Herring asked for a lawyer, and Vermont State Police Sgt. Todd Baxter did not provide her with one. After a back-and-forth, Herring apparently spoke about the three relatives.
“What about the other fucking three?” she asked, according to the police affidavit. “The way I look at it, they fucking deserved it, too.”
The bodies of the three women were found on the morning of Aug. 8. Autopsies confirmed they were all shot in their torsos and died within seconds.
Police say they found spent bullet casings at the Berlin home that match the spent bullet casings found at the scene of Sobel’s killing, and that a hole was punched in the door to Regina Herring’s room.
Police say they found casings in four places: the kitchen near the entryway; in the living room, where Rhonda’s body was found; in an upstairs bedroom, three feet from where Regina’s body was found; and in a downstairs bedroom, where Falzarano was found.
Henry Premont, Jody’s ex-boyfriend who was arrested in a standoff last week, owned the gun she allegedly used in the four murders. Premont also told police that Herring had shown him a “hit list” of relatives, according to the affidavit.
Premont said the list included: Rhonda and Regina Herring, who she’s charged with shooting; Jenella Herring, Jody Herring’s mother; Jennella Herring’s husband, Ken; and possibly Dwayne Herring, Jody Herring’s brother.
On Aug. 10, Herring was arraigned on one charge of first-degree murder in the shooting death of Sobel, the DCF social worker who was one of the main people on Herring’s case. Herring’s family says the two cousins and aunt she’s now charged with killing had been making contact with DCF.
In a previous affidavit regarding Sobel’s death, police say Herring ranted about how “the police never do anything for her, about how she had been beaten by a former boyfriend and nothing was done about the injustices suffered at the hands of DCF.” Herring lost custody of her 9-year old daughter in July. The child is now in the father’s care.
Herring’s daughter, Desiree Herring, 20, told police that her mother was increasingly upset when her grandson was also taken into state custody. Desiree Herring said when she lost custody of her son it was “the last straw for her mother,” according to the affidavit.
Desiree Herring said that Jody Herring confronted Rhonda and Regina Herring about calling DCF. The cousins “denied” the allegation, according to the affidavit.
Timeline of the alleged homicides
Police records do not say when exactly on Aug. 7 the three women were shot. But records say Jody Herring scoped out the homes of some of the relatives who Premont said were on her “hit list” on the afternoon of the four shootings.
At about 3 p.m. on Aug. 7, police say Jody Herring left her brother Dwayne Herring a voicemail message. “Dwayne, if you think anything of your sister you’ll get ahold of me now,” she said.
Herring left a second message two minutes later saying, “Watch the news; you’ll wish you got ahold of me earlier.”
Dwayne Herring told police his sister sounded “hysterical.” He hadn’t spoken to his sister since Aug. 4, because he was upset that she had stolen a bottle of Kahlua from his house.
Twenty minutes later, police say a cousin, Christopher Herring, saw Jody Herring’s silver 2011 Honda Accord parked in the driveway of her mother Jenella Herring’s home.
Another cousin, Keith Herring, told police he saw Jody Herring driving slowly through the City Place parking lot between 3:30 p.m. and 4 p.m.
Thirty minutes after that, police say Jody Herring drove to the Barre residence of Laurie Setien, the sister of Charles Setien, a former longtime boyfriend and father of her eldest daughter. Laura Setien told police that Jody Herring pulled up in the driveway and “was moving her arms as if she was manipulating an object.”
Setien said she was convinced Jody went to her home on Bailey Street intending to kill her and Robert Mange, according to the affidavit. Mange and Setien told police “there was no other reason for Jody to have traveled to their residence or parked in their driveway.”
Herring was seen shooting Sobel in the Barre parking lot at 4:45 p.m.
The gun
Police say Jody Herring used a gun owned by Henry Premont, her former boyfriend, for all four shootings.
Herring had lived with Premont in Williamstown from March of this year until Aug. 5. On the afternoon of the shooting on Aug. 7, he returned from work and noticed his rifle was missing. Premont told police he did not give Herring the gun.
Jody Herring tried to buy a different gun earlier this year — a Ruger SR-40, .40 caliber handgun from Mid State Sports in Randolph. The gun retailer denied Jody Herring’s purchase after requesting a required federal background check.
Premont was involved in a standoff with police for one hour on Aug. 12 outside Rickie’s Indian Restaurant on South Barre Road. Premont eventually was taken into police custody and put on a 72-hour psychiatric hold. Police said he was suicidal, and that he hoped the incident would allow him to see Herring.
Herring was a good shot, Premont said, and he told police that Herring often made comments about how “people are going to pay” and “there’s going to be an Armageddon.” Premont reported that Herring also wanted to shoot someone in the head to see “brain matter.”
In a search of her car, police found three boxes of ammunition, a digital voice recorder, her driver’s license and some cash.
