Jayveon Caballero was sentenced Monday to 25 years to life in prison in what prosecutors described as the ambush-style shooting death of a Montpelier man more than three years ago.
It was the first murder case in Vermont’s capital city of Montpelier in nearly 100 years.
Caballero, 33, was convicted last fall by a jury of second-degree murder in the fatal shooting of Markus Austin, a former player with the semi-pro Vermont Frost Heaves basketball team.
“Mr. Caballero, the decisions that you made were yours and yours alone to make,” Judge Mary Morrissey said Monday from the bench in Washington County criminal court in Barre as she handed down the murder sentence.
“Those decisions,” the judge told Caballero, “led to the senseless death of Mr. Austin and your conduct demands a significant punitive sentence.”
Morrissey, in reaching her decision to impose a 25-year-to-life sentence, spoke of Caballero’s escalating pattern of violence.
He has four prior assault convictions, including an aggravated assault case which prevented him from even possessing a firearm.
Caballero will receive credit for the more than three years behind bars awaiting his trial and sentencing following his arrest in May 2017.
Danita Sturdivent, Austin’s mother, dismissed claims that Caballero didn’t intend to kill her son when he fired the fatal shot in January 2017. She said in court Monday that Caballero made several decisions that night that resulted in Austin’s death.
“He could have turned around any time but he chose not to do so, he instead waited there for my son to return home and murder him,” she said.
“Your honor, this is why I’m hoping you don’t just throw the book at him, you hit him with it,” Sturdivent said, adding, “I’ll be sitting here grieving here for eternity, you don’t know what it’s like to have the joy ripped from your life. He took the joy from my life.”
Austin, 33, was employed at the Vermont Psychiatric Care Hospital in Berlin as a mental health specialist when he was killed outside his Montpelier apartment.
Sturdivent, as did other family members, asked the judge to send Caballero to prison for the rest of his life.
Before Morrissey delivered the 25-year-to-life sentence, Caballero addressed the court, standing up and turning around to speak to Austin’s family who sat in the courtroom.
“I am deeply and sincerely sorry for the pain, the hurt, and the grief, that I have brought to all of you,” he said, adding that his actions were not intentional. “I am so, so sorry.”
He then said, “I know that I deserve punishment and I am ready to accept it. I just don’t want the court or the community to think I am the cold-blooded killer the state is making me out to be.”
A central issue in the case boiled down to intent.
Prosecutors have contended that Caballero was out for revenge on the night of the killing, lying in wait and ambushing Austin as he drove up into the parking lot of his Montpelier apartment.
Caballero had targeted Austin, prosecutors said, after a melee had taken place outside a bar in Barre earlier that night.
Daniel Sedon, Caballero’s attorney, did not contest that his client fired his gun that night, but maintained that when Caballero did so, he never had any intention of shooting Austin.
Instead, when Caballero fired in a direction away from Austin, the bullet hit the windshield, causing the path of the projectile to curve and strike Austin, the defense attorney has said.
Sedon, in court Monday, said his client could not admit that he intended to kill Austin because that was not the case.
“Had Mr. Caballero wanted to adopt that position he could have accepted the terms of the generous plea bargain that was offered at the beginning of the trial,” he said.
“He declined,” Sedon said of his client. “It would have been a lie to the court to say now, and then, in the future that he intended to kill Mr. Austin.”
Assistant Attorney General John Waszak, a prosecutor on the case, asked Morrissey on Monday to impose a sentence of between 25 and 30 years to life in prison.
The prosecutor said that Caballero’s actions the night of the killing showed that the shooting was more than just a tragic accident, but an act of vengeance.
Sedon asked for a sentence of 20 years to life in prison with all but 15 years suspended. That would have made Cabarallo eligible for release on probation after serving 15 years.
Earlier in the Monday hearing, Austin’s family spoke to the judge.
They described Austin as a standout basketball star who grew up in White Plains, New York, and was referred to as a “legend” there for his prowess on the hardwood.
He earned a scholarship and played Division I basketball at Eastern Michigan University. After graduation, his family members said, he took part in camps to help teach youth basketball skills and also played for the Vermont-based Frost Heaves.
Caryn Pletzer, Austin’s partner and the mother of the couple’s now 8-year-old son, told the judge before the sentence was handed down how her child looked up to his father and has had a hard time coping with the loss.
“They were best friends and they did everything together,” she said of Austin and their son.
Her son, Pletzer said, after learning of his father’s death asked, “Who is going to make me breakfast, who am I going to wake up, who am I going to wrestle with and play basketball with?”
Pletzer she said is also having trouble dealing with Austin’s death, said she had difficulty putting the pain into words.
“I’ve never felt so hopeless and alone in my life,” she said, “and yet I have a son that I now have to raise alone because the defendant thought he could play God and choose who lives and dies.”
Sedon, Caballero’s attorney, played a video Monday in the courtroom where family and friends of his client talked of the tough life he had growing up and the kind of man they knew him to be.
His mother, according to the video, spoke of her struggles with drug addiction during her son’s young life In New York.
The family, in search of a better life, moved to Vermont when Caballero was still a young child.
In Vermont, family members said in the video, Caballero and his sister were subject to family violence, and as among the few people of color in the area, faced racism growing up.
Roslyn Caballero, Jayveon Caballero’s sister, said in the video that her brother looked out for others and offered help to those most in need.
“Jayveon is a loving, caring, very caring, and a very protective brother, father, son, uncle,” she said.
His family and friends in the video asked for mercy for Caballero, and the opportunity to have a second chance at life outside of jail.
“He didn’t want this to happen,” Roslyn Caballero said. “Jayveon wanted to be there for his family, and be there for his daughter, and to make a better life for himself. I feel that if he was given another chance that he would still go after those goals that he had.”
Caballero’s sentencing hearing had been delayed due to the Covid-19 pandemic that prompted all but emergency court hearings to be put off.
Several precautions were taken for Monday’s hearing, in addition to everyone donning face coverings, including the judge and court officers.
Other steps included having several Plexiglass barriers set up between the attorneys and participants as well as a livestream on the Vermont judiciary’s YouTube page of the proceeding to help limit the number of people inside the courtroom.
