[A] judge sentenced a Castleton farmer to 10 years in prison for fatally shooting his daughter’s boyfriend before burying him in a manure compost pile.
Before the sentence was handed down, Stephen Pelletier, 62, stood up in Rutland Superior criminal court Tuesday and faced the friends and family of Michael Wisell, the man police said he killed more than three years ago.
“I gave in to anger and fear and did something terrible,” Pelletier told them, his voice breaking as he spoke, his hands shaking as he held a crumpled paper where his thoughts were written down. “I tried very hard, in many ways to reach Michael, and regret that I failed. I’m very sorry.”
Wisell, according to testimony at the sentencing hearing, had been in an abusive relationship with Pelletier’s daughter.
Judge Cortland Corsones then sentenced Pelletier, a lifelong farmer, to 20 years to life, all suspended on probation, except 10 years to be served behind bars. That’s the maximum prison term allowed under a plea deal reached between the attorneys in the case.
Pelletier, as part of that agreement, had pleaded no contest last year to a charge of second-degree murder in the 25-year-old man’s death. The deal allowed prosecutors to seek up to 10 years imprisonment for Pelletier, while his attorney, Brian Marsicovetere, was able to argue for a lesser sentence.
The emotionally packed sentencing hearing, which was spread over two days, came to a conclusion Tuesday with Corsones explaining that he was close to nixing the plea deal in favor of a harsher penalty. He said the killing had been carried out in a particularly “cold-blooded” manner.
However, if he rejected the plea agreement, the judge said Pelletier would be allowed to withdraw his plea and the case would head to trial.
That created risk, he added, due to a motion by the defense that had previously been filed, but never ruled on, seeking to suppress evidence in the case.
Corsones said if that motion succeeded, it was possible that Pelletier might not be convicted at a trial. He added that prosecutors, who knew the case best, “strongly recommended” that he accept the plea agreement. Wisell’s family, however, opposed the deal.
“It is clear from the evidence that Mr. Pelletier committed the murder because in his mind he believed it was necessary to protect his family,” the judge said. “This was a genuine belief on his part, however, he did have other options.”
Wisell had been in a relationship with Pelletier’s daughter, Jessica, and they had been living on the Pelletier family farm in Castleton.
Both Wisell and Jessica Pelletier suffered from drug addiction. Wisell had been physically and emotionally abusive to Jessica and threatened her parents as well, the judge said in summing up testimony from the sentencing hearing.
Corsones then went back to May 14, 2014, when Stephen Pelletier and Wisell were alone on the farm.
Pelletier asked Wisell to help stack and cut wood.
“While Michael Wissell was assisting with the chopping and stacking of wood, Mr. Pelletier shot him in the back,” the judge said, “then without knowing whether Michael Wisell was dead or alive, Mr. Pelletier shot him in the forehead.”
Pelletier then slit Wisell’s throat, put his body in a manure compost pile on the farm. He confessed to the crime six days later, the judge said.
The Vermont Attorney General’s office prosecuted the case. Assistant Attorney General John Treadwell, head of the AG’s criminal division, called for the full 10-year prison term to be imposed, the maximum under the plea deal.
Treadwell said Pelletier was still engaged in “victim blaming,” instead of accepting responsibility for his actions. “The defendant’s decision to take the law into his own hands and engage in vigilante justice must be addressed,” the prosecutor added.
Marsicovetere asked the judge to sentence Pelletier to six years in jail. He argued that jail for his client is like torture since he has been an outdoor person his entire life.
“Mr. Pelletier was a peaceful man who was facing a struggle of unbelievable proportion,” the defense attorney said. Pelletier, he added, had watched his daughter suffer from domestic abuse for more than year.
“It ultimately proved too much for him to handle,” Marsicovetere said of Pelletier, adding, “He believed in his core he had to protect his family.”
Pelletier, the defense attorney told the judge, is described by those who know him as a hardworking, churchgoing, family man who, except for a drunken driving conviction nearly two decades ago, has had no run-ins with the law.
Judge Corsones said Pelletier had other options. He could have gone to police, he could have sought restraining or no trespass orders, or he could have gone to Wisell’s family.
“Mr. Pelletier did not have a right to end his life,” Corsones said. “Mr. Pelletier’s action ended any hope that Michael Wisell’s family had that he could turn things around.”
Family and friends of both Pelletier and Wisell left the courthouse late Tuesday afternoon following the hearing declining to speak to reporters.
Oliver Allen, who attended the hearing, said he served as a teacher for Wisell during his junior high years.
“It doesn’t seem like justice,” Allen said outside the courtroom, “but it’s as much justice as the judge could give. I have a feeling he wished he could have done more.”
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