Two more people are now facing a federal charge in connection with the probe into the homicide of a Vermont man last fall in northern Vermont, but still no one has been charged in his slaying.
Alicia Whitcomb and Brandon Darling, both 30, were each named in an indictment on drug charges linked to the investigation in the shooting death of 37-year-old Michael Pimental of Waterford in October 2018.
Whitcomb and Darling both pleaded not guilty to the drug charges against them during their arraignment last week in federal court in Burlington.
Whitcomb was released on conditions, while Darling is being held pending a hearing set for Wednesday.
“The defendant has a serious and unabated substance abuse problem and as long as he is actively using, he is a danger to himself and others,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Wendy Fuller wrote in a filing asking the judge to continue to hold Darling in custody.
“As such,” the prosecutor added, “he should be detained.”
Whitcomb is the third member of her family to be charged as part of the nearly yearlong investigation, joining her sister Krystal Whitcomb and father Shawn Whitcomb.
Both Krystal and Shawn Whitcomb were charged with gun and drug offenses, though neither has been charged directly in Pimental’s death.
Krystal Whitcomb, Pimental’s girlfriend, and Shawn Whitcomb, were arrested at different locations Oct. 14, the day Pimental’s body was discovered by police.
Pimental’s body was found off the side of a rural dirt road in Concord, about 15 miles from his home in Waterford. According to police and court records, Pimental was shot multiple times in the head and torso.
A third person, Michael Anthony Hayes Sr., also known as “Mo,” had also been charged in the case. He is accused of conspiring to unlawfully possess ammunition.
John Welch, the fourth person to be named in the case, had been charged in June with being an unlawful user of a controlled substance knowingly in possession of a firearm.
Each of the four defendants previously indicted in the probe have pleaded not guilty to the charges against them. All four have been ordered detained pending trial.
The latest charges against Alicia Whitcomb and Darling allege they conspired with others indicted in the case to distribute drugs, including heroin, cocaine, and fentanyl.
Alicia Whitcomb and Darling, who their attorneys said at the hearing last week had been involved in a relationship for about a decade and have a child together, also were charged with controlling a place, an apartment on Back Center Road in Lyndon, for drug activity.
Fuller, the prosecutor, said during the hearing last week she was willing to release Alicia Whitcomb on conditions that she not contact others charged in the case.
“The government’s larger concern is not necessarily the contact between Mr. Darling and Ms. Whitcomb, it’s between these two defendants and the other co-defendants,” Fuller said, according to a recording of the arraignment hearing.
“As long the condition stays in place with regard to the other co-defendants everything is fine,” the prosecutor added.
Magistrate Judge John Conroy granted that request.
According to court records, both Krystal and Shawn Whitcomb, and Pimental, were being investigated by the Vermont Drug Task Force. That probe, court records stated, involved large quantities of heroin and fentanyl that started the summer before Pimental’s slaying.
At a hearing in the Whitcombs’ drug case last year, a prosecutor told the judge that Krystal Whitcomb had sought her father’s help after she told him that Pimental had physically abused her.
According to the prosecutor, Shawn Whitcomb told investigators, “I did what I did to protect Krystal.”
Krystal Whitcomb, who the prosecutor said at times provided conflicting statements, did say at one point that in addition to her father, another man was involved in the shooting.
That man has not been identified.
In filings earlier this year in the cases against Krystal and Shawn Whitcomb federal prosecutors wrote that as they were probing the case they were considering charges in Pimental’s slaying that carry the possibility of the death penalty.
Kraig LaPorte, a spokesperson for the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Vermont, declined Monday to comment on the investigation and the ongoing prosecutions.
Vermont State Police Capt. Scott Dunlop, head of the agency’s major crimes unit, also Monday declined comment, other than to say that the investigation into Pimental’s death remains ongoing.
