[A] man has pleaded guilty to killing a University of Vermont student more than three years ago over what police say was a $6,000 drug debt, reaching a plea deal for a 25-year sentence, according to federal prosecutors.
Richard Monroe, 25, entered his plea Wednesday in U.S. District Court in the death of Kevin DeOliveira, 23, on Jan 2, 2015.
Monroe was arrested last year in Texas after a 2½-year investigation.
Prosecutors say while the 25-year sentence is binding as part of the plea agreement, Judge Geoffrey Crawford deferred accepting it pending a pre-sentence investigation by the U.S. probation office.
If the judge rejected the plea deal, prosecutors said, Monroe would have the option of withdrawing his guilty plea.
The charges Monroe pleaded guilty to carry a mandatory minimum of 15 years in prison, with a maximum sentence of life, according to court records.
Prosecutors have said in court records that Monroe shot and killed DeOliveira, a student at the University of Vermont and Monroe’s primary cocaine supplier. Monroe was a student at the time, at Champlain College in Burlington.
In court Wednesday, Monroe pleaded guilty to two federal crimes. He admitted to conspiring with others to distribute more than 500 grams of cocaine during the second half of 2014.
He also pleaded guilty to a firearms charge, specifically that he carried, used and possessed firearms “during, and in furtherance of, the cocaine conspiracy, and, in particular, that he discharged a handgun” on Jan. 2, 2015, resulting in the death of DeOliveira, prosecutors said.
The killing was the upshot of a financial dispute between Monroe and DeOliveira in late 2014, over several ounces of cocaine that had been damaged, prosecutors said.
DeOliveira had claimed Monroe owed him several thousand dollars for the cocaine, and Monroe disputed this debt, prosecutors said.
On the morning of Jan, 2, 2015, according to court records, Monroe went to the door of DeOliveira’s apartment at 58 Green St. in Burlington. DeOliveira opened the door, court records say, and Monroe fired a single bullet, hitting DeOlveira’s eye. The shot from the Browning Buckmark .22 caliber pistol killed DeOliveira.
U.S. Attorney Christina Nolan and Assistant U.S. Attorney Paul J. Van de Graaf prosecuted the case.
Mark Kaplan, an attorney who represented Monroe, could not immediately be reached for comment.
