Two years after the body of a Waterford man was found lying on the side of a rural Vermont dirt road federal prosecutors have publicly identified the person who they believe fired the shot that killed him.
John Welch, 34, formerly of Woodsville, New Hampshire, is identified as the alleged shooter, and two other people have also been charged in the homicide of Michael Pimental, 37, in October 2018.
Prosecutors had been weighing whether to seek the death penalty, but say they have taken that off the table.
“The government has notified the court and the parties that the government will not seek the death penalty against the defendants,” the U.S. Attorney’s Office for Vermont stated in announcing the latest charges.
Christina Nolan, U.S. attorney for Vermont, through a spokesperson, declined comment Wednesday on the charging decision.
A new 19-count indictment returned in the case this week by a federal grand jury in Vermont names several other co-defendants, including Krystal Whitcomb, 28, formerly of Waterford and Pimental’s girlfriend at the time, and, 38-year-old Michael “Moe” Hayes from Washington, D.C.
Welch, Whitcomb, and Hayes all have been charged with using and carrying a firearm “during and in relation” to a trafficking crime during which the three “caused the death of Michael Piminetal by murder.”
That is the federal charge that carries the possibily of the death penalty. With prosecutors no longer pursuing their execution, they each face up to life in prison, if convicted.
In addition to that charge connected to Pimental’s killing, all three were charged in this week’s indictment with discharging a firearm during a trafficking crime and conspiracy to use and carry a firearm during a drug trafficking crime.
All three are currently incarcerated after previously being charged in earlier indictments with other offenses, including firearm and drug charges, but not directly tied to Pimental’s slaying.
Prosecutors alleged that “in and around” the weekend of Oct. 12, 2018, the three planned the homicide, and on Oct. 13, 2018, Welch shot Pimental.
The next day, Oct. 14, 2018, Pimental’s body was found on the side of a road in Concord, about 15 miles from his home in Waterford. He had been shot multiple times, according to authorities, and his death ruled a homicide.
The latest indictment adds two more defendants to the case, Michael Ashford, 31, of Ryegate, who is charged in a cocaine conspiracy with Hayes and Welch; and a defendant whose name is sealed and is charged as an accessory after the fact along with Hayes.
Investigators have said Whitcomb and Pimental had been distributing heroin out of their home on Duck Pond Road in Waterford, with Hayes, Ashford and John Welch, all acquaintances of Whitcomb’s, also involved in selling drugs.
On Oct. 14, 2018, the day Pimental’s body was discovered in Concord, Whitcomb and Hayes were stopped in New Hampshire in a Cadillac registered to Pimental, according to court filings.
Police searching the vehicle found drugs and guns, and Pimental’s blood was located by investigators in the car’s truck.
A few months later, in February 2019, police received information about Welch offering to sell a firearm to a person in New Hampshire. As police say they investigated, they saw Welch shortly after along a rural road in Bath, New Hampshire, using a shovel to try and dig into the ground.
Police said they later returned to the location Welch had been digging and found a backpack with a firearm inside it believed to be the murder weapon.
