[B]URLINGTON — A third person is being charged in what started as an investigation into alleged drug dealing in Vermont’s Northeast Kingdom – a probe that has expanded to include the mysterious shooting death of one of the men police said was at center of that drug ring.
Michael Anthony Hayes Sr., 36, who is also known as “Mo,” pleaded not guilty late Tuesday afternoon in federal court in Burlington to a charge of knowingly conspiring to unlawfully possess ammunition.
Magistrate Judge John Conroy ordered Hayes jailed without bail while the case against him remains pending.
“This is an exceedingly serious case,” Conroy said from the bench. “The government has made a proffer that this case also involves the death of one Michael Pimental.”
The ammunition charge against Hayes comes as Vermont State Police investigators continue their probe into the shooting death of Pimental. The 37-year-old’s body was found on Oct. 14 off the side of a rural, dirt road in Concord, about 15 miles from his home in Waterford.
According to police, he was shot multiple times in the head and torso.
Krystal Whitcomb, 27, Pimental’s girlfriend, and her father, Shawn Whitcomb, 51, were both arrested at separate locations Oct. 14, the day Pimental’s body was discovered by police.
Both Whitcombs face federal drug and firearm offenses, and have been jailed since their arrests. According to court records, both Whitcombs and Pimental were the subject of a “heroin distribution” investigation by the Vermont Drug Task Force that started this summer.
At a hearing last month in federal court, Assistant U.S. Attorney Wendy Fuller, a federal prosecutor, said that Krystal Whitcomb had sought her father’s help after she told him that Pimental had physically abused her.
Shawn Whitcomb, according to Fuller, also told investigators, “I did what I did to protect Krystal.”
The prosecutor also said during last month’s court hearing that while Krystal Whitcomb at times provided conflicting statements to investigators about her boyfriend’s death, she did say that another man, in addition to her father, was involved in the shooting.
The shooting, Krystal Whitcomb told investigators, took place at the residence on Duck Pond Road in Waterford, where she lived with Pimental, according to the prosecutor.
However, Fuller did not name that unidentified other man in court, and also declined to name that man when asked after the hearing about that person’s identify.
No charges directly tied to Pimental’s slaying have been filed against anyone.
A motion filed Tuesday by federal prosecutors arguing to keep Hayes locked up while the case against him remains pending sheds a little more light on the homicide probe, but still does not indicate who authorities believe fired the fatal shots that killed Pimental.
Assistant U.S. Attorney John Boscia wrote in the filing that Hayes and Krystal Whitcomb purchased ammunition at a Walmart in Littleton, New Hampshire, on Oct. 11, three days before Pimental’s body was discovered.
Also, on Oct. 14, the filing stated, a sheriff’s deputy in Grafton County, New Hampshire, stopped Hayes and Chrystal Whitcomb in a Cadillac registered to Pimental. Hayes was driving the vehicle and Whitcomb was in the passenger seat, according to the motion.
During the stop, the prosecutor wrote, Hayes provided a false name and was arrested. Whitcomb was taken back to Vermont by state police detectives.
She later admitted that three firearms found inside the vehicle belonged to her, including a .38 Special revolver, the filing stated. Prosecutors said they also found 2,600 baggies of heroin and more than $20,000 in cash in the vehicle.
According to prosecutors, video detectives obtained from Walmart shows Hayes providing Whitcomb with the cash used to purchase the ammunition.
“During the video-recorded purchase,” the filing stated. “Hayes also gives Krystal Whitcomb a gun holster, which Krystal Whitcomb purchased along with the ammunition.”
Hayes’ criminal record includes past convictions in Connecticut for firearm and drug offenses, as well as charges that remaining pending of reckless endangerment and fleeing police, according to the detention motion.
Frank Twarog, an attorney representing Hayes, said after the hearing Tuesday he could not comment on the case against his client.
Twarog did say in court that he had talked with prosecutors and expected to obtain “additional information” from them in the coming weeks related to case.