Prosecutors say a Pennsylvania man arrested on federal charges in Vermont tied to a homicide in Cambridge in a dispute over heroin has threatened to kill witnesses in the case while behind bars.
Taylor Ruffin Herrington, also known as “Tee,” 28, was taken into custody last month in Philadelphia by the FBI on a warrant charging him with firearms and drug offenses. He has not been charged directly in the fatal shooting of 39-year-old Michael Haines in Cambridge early on the morning on March 3.
Herrington, who is incarcerated at the Strafford County House of Corrections in Dover, New Hampshire, appeared Tuesday for a video arraignment in federal court in Burlington on the charges against him in Vermont.
Herrington pleaded not guilty to those federal charges, but as attorneys were presenting arguments over whether he should remain detained pending trial technological problems arose, prompting Magistrate Judge John Conroy to continue the matter for another day.
On Wednesday, the hearing was continued and Conroy granted the prosecution request to hold Herrington in custody pending trial, citing, in part, the strength of the state’s case and the seriousness of the offenses.
However, in seeking to keep Herrington behind bars pending trial, federal prosecutors submitted a filing this week describing Herrington as the “sole” and “primary” suspect in Haines’ homicide.
In addition, prosecutors contended in that filing that after Herrington’s arrest on March 19 Vermont State Police learned more details from a “source of information,” termed in the document as an SOI.
Prosecutors wrote that Herrington told the SOI about the shooting, “including the fact that Herrington shot Haines in a dispute over 60-70 bundles of heroin.”
In addition, according to the filing, Herrington told the SOI that he had “recently solicited several of his associates from Philadelphia to travel to Vermont to kill the witnesses involved in the case.”
Prosecutors added in the document that they are still investigating those threats.
Elizabeth Quinn, a federal public defender, argued during the arraignment hearing before the technology problems that her client should be released on conditions. She said her client had no previous criminal convictions and that while prosecutors consider him a suspect in Haines’ homicide, Herrington has not been charged in the killing.
In addition, Quinn said, the information in the prosecutors’ filing about threats allegedly made by Herrington regarding witnesses “likely” came from another inmate housed with her client. She questioned the credibility of such claims, saying that the inmate may be trying to better their own situation by providing information to prosecutors in Herrington’s case.
Herrington, Quinn said, also suffers from high-blood pressure and asthma, putting him at heightened risk behind bars of contracting Covid-19.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Matthew Lasher, the prosecutor, countered that Herrington should remain behind bars pending trial.
“These were specific threats about killing witnesses,” Lasher told the judge. “Obviously with those kinds of threats being made, the government is hesitant to identify with specificity the source or sources behind those claims.”
According to police, Haines was shot in the stomach and died from the wound at his home in Cambridge early on the morning of March 3..
Prosecutors wrote in court filings that at the time of the shooting Herrington was trying to break into Haines’ residence. While Haines was on the phone with police he was shot in the kitchen of his home, the filing stated.
Herrington, according to prosecutors, had been upset with Haines over the roughly 60-70 bundles of heroin that he believed had been stolen from him.
When police later searched Haines’ home, the filing stated, they seized more than 60 bundles of heroin that had been hidden in a recliner.
“This seizure further corroborates the fact that Haines was shot over a dispute involving the defendant’s heroin,” the filing stated.
“In addition,” according to the filing, “there is a wealth of electronic evidence which corroborates the witnesses statements, including evidence related to the defendant’s phone which describes his whereabouts in and around the time of the homicide.
Herrington has since been indicted on the federal charges of carrying and using a firearm during a drug trafficking crime and conspiracy to distribute heroin.
The hearing continues Wednesday morning for the judge to determine whether Herrington will remain in custody pending his trial.
