Oddo, 53, hasn’t been charged in connection with either death.
However, a recording of his arraignment late last week in Burlington on a federal drug and firearms charge reveals that prosecutors raised the issue of both deaths as they sought to have him jailed pending trial.
His attorney argued for Oddo’s release under conditions, including GPS monitoring. The judge eventually agreed to continue to detain Oddo, at least until a more structured plan for his release could be put in place.
“There’s no evidence before me to suggest that he had a role in the death of either individual found at his home,” Magistrate Judge John Conroy said.
“As curious as it is that someone should have deaths occurring at his house on more than one occasion,” the judge said, “… nothing before me suggests that Mr. Oddo was actively involved in those deaths.”
In the filing ordering Oddo held, Conroy wrote that it appeared Oddo had a “significant” and “unaddressed” problem with abusing heroin.
“Evidence exists to conclude that defendant has a seizure disorder which complicates implementation of a release plan,” the filing from the judge also stated. “His failure to report deaths at his residence suggests that he does not effectively address serious medical issues.”
Oddo, when questioned by police days earlier, said he had seen Rooker but not recently, and didn’t know where she was, court records say. She had been reported missing a week earlier.
Prosecutors say Rooker may have been dead for a week when police found her. An autopsy revealed no signs of trauma, prosecutors added, and Rooker may have died from a drug overdose. Police have termed her death suspicious. Toxicology results remain pending.
In court Friday, according to the recording of the hearing, Assistant U.S. Attorney Nate Burris said a man died at Oddo’s home in September.
“Again, the defendant alerted no one, and it was in fact only when a third party came to the defendant’s residence and observed the body on the floor of the defendant’s kitchen that law enforcement was contacted,” Burris said.
“This behavior of the defendant is indicative of an incredible disregard for human life,” the prosecutor said. “The defendant’s residence can fairly be said to be a place where people go and they die.”
Burris did not identify the man, and his name was not in court filings.
Vermont State Police, who investigated the man’s death, and a death certificate obtained by VTDigger confirmed that Frederick J. Weitzman, 54, of Bay Shore, New York, died at Oddo’s property in September.
The certificate lists his manner of death as an accident and his cause of death as “Hypertensive and atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease” he suffered from for years.
Listed as a contributing factor was “Acute Heroin Intoxication; Acute and Chronic Alcohol Use.”
The Rutland Herald first identified and reported the man’s death at Oddo’s home.
“It sounds like the cause of death was, in fact, a heart attack,” Steve Barth, a federal public defender representing Oddo, said in court Friday according to the recording. “While nobody ever wants to be found in a position where there is a decedent in one’s home, it was not caused by Mr. Oddo.”
In Rooker’s case, she had been reported missing March 8 by family members who hadn’t heard from her since March 2. Rooker reportedly was last seen March 3, when a friend dropped her off at Oddo’s home, prosecutors said.
Authorities have said both Oddo and Rooker were heroin users.
Oddo pleaded not guilty Friday.
Oddo, when questioned by a detective, said he previously had more guns but they had been stolen, court records say.
Barth, in arguing for his client’s release, said the charge Oddo is facing is unrelated to either death. Barth added that federal prosecutors in Vermont, in the recent past, haven’t been afraid to charge someone with distribution of a drug resulting in death.
“They haven’t charged Mr. Oddo with distribution,” Barth added, “let alone distribution resulting in death.”
The public defender also said Oddo has only two convictions, both for drunken driving, dating back more than 20 years.
Burris, in seeking to have Oddo detained pending trial, contended that the evidence against him is strong on the charge he is facing and he represented a danger to the community.
“There is an admission from the defendant that people are using the defendant’s premises to distribute drugs and there are multiple deaths occurring,” he said. “I think the totality of those circumstances would weigh heavily in favor of detention.”
Oddo, according to court records, told police he let people stay at his house, including drug users and drug dealers.
Also, the filing stated, Oddo told a detective he had seen people at his home with “blocks,” a term used to describe 500 individual dosages in heroin bags, as well as “sandwich bags full of heroin.”
The people staying at his home, Oddo said, would travel into Rutland in the day and return at night after selling drugs, according to court records.
He told the detective he only knew the street name of some of the people who stayed at his home, including “Scoob” and “Brisko.”
Oddo said those two gave him heroin in exchange for letting them stay at his residence, and they stored proceeds from the drug sales there, including video game systems and televisions.
“Oddo advised that he knew it was illegal to allow individuals to stay at his residence and sell illegal narcotics but he did it anyway because he was trying to help people,” the filing stated.
As part of the investigation, a federal indictment was brought last week against Francesco “Brisco” Escribano, 34, and Richard “Scoob” Torruellas, 22, both of Jersey City, New Jersey, and Alyssa Grace, 20, of Brandon, charging them with drug-related crimes.
The indictment alleges that on March 15, Torruellas and Grace distributed heroin and that the next day all three defendants possessed both fentanyl and crack cocaine with the intent to distribute.
In the Rutland hotel room where the three defendants were staying, police said they seized 87 bags of suspected fentanyl and 5.5 grams of suspected crack cocaine.
Grace and Torruellas pleaded not guilty Friday in federal court. They have been ordered detained.
Escribano, who is also jailed, is set for arraignment this week. Prosecutors asked to have him detained pending his trial.
He has a lengthy rap sheet that includes drug, firearms and burglary convictions, the filing states.
“In 2013, the defendant fled New Jersey for greener pastures, bringing his criminal ways here to Vermont,” Burris, the prosecutor, wrote in the detention motion.
In Vermont, he added, Escribano picked up a conviction in Windsor County for selling heroin and received a three-year sentence.
“It appears quite clear that the defendant has no intention of living a law-abiding life, and thus,” Burris wrote, “given the range of criminal conduct he has demonstrated a willingness to engage in — from theft, to drugs, to firearms, the danger he poses to the community is clear.”
