[B]URLINGTON — Federal agents in Texas arrested a suspect Monday in the 2015 killing of a University of Vermont student in his Green Street apartment, officials said.
Prosecutors allege that Richard Monroe, 24, shot Kevin DeOliveira, 23, at close range with a handgun in an “execution-style killing” stemming from a cocaine debt.
DeOliveira, originally from New Jersey, was a student at the University of Vermont when he was killed. Monroe was a student at Champlain College.
In addition to the murder charge, the multi-count indictment charges Monroe with conspiring to sell at least 500 grams of cocaine in Burlington between 2014 and 2015 with do-defendant Zachary Hust, carrying drugs in furtherance of drug dealing and robbing two people at gunpoint for a small amount of marijuana and cash.
Hust is charged in the cocaine conspiracy and is being held pending trial.
Numerous witnesses told investigators Monroe was dealing cocaine at the time, and prosecutors say he confessed the killing to a third party. Police recovered the .22 caliber handgun used to kill DeOliveira, which they say belonged to Monroe.
If convicted on all charges, Monroe faces a mandatory minimum of 35 years with a maximum sentence of life in prison.
Agents with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives arrested him Monday, and he was expected to appear before a federal judge in El Paso, Texas, on Tuesday, according to a news release from the U.S. attorney for Vermont.
The judge is expected to rule on whether Monroe should be released pending trial. The judge may also rule that Monroe’s detention hearing should occur in Vermont, in which case he would be transported by the U.S. Marshals Service.
Federal prosecutors plan to ask for Monroe to be detained pending trial.
The U.S. attorney’s office said Monroe’s arrest is the culmination of a multi-agency investigation led by the Burlington Police Department and ATF agents.
“Police and prosecutors do not forget about crime victims or their families, and they don’t forget their vow to bring suspects to justice,” Burlington Police Chief Brandon del Pozo said in a statement.
Mayor Miro Weinberger praised the “skill and perseverance” of Burlington police and their federal partners in his own statement.
“I am pleased to see this critical step toward bringing closure to Kevin DeOliveira’s family and the Burlington community. Burlington remains one of the safest cities in the country thanks to the outstanding work of our police officers, and I commend them for their work on this case,” the mayor added.
