A Pownal man is facing a murder charge in a knife attack and fatal slashing of a woman late Monday morning on a walkway along a river in downtown Bennington.
Darren Pronto, 32, entered a plea of not guilty Tuesday afternoon in Bennington County Superior Court to the charge of first-degree murder in the death of Emily Hamann, 26, of Bennington.
Pronto was arraigned on video from inside the Bennington Police Department. Judge Cortland Corsones agreed to a request from Bennington County State’s Attorney Erica Marthage to order Pronto held without bail.
“The evidence of guilt is great and there is no right to bail at this point,” Marthage told the judge.
Attorney Frederick Bragdon, a public defender representing Pronto, did not contest the request that his client be held without bail.
Bragdon said he had spoken to Pronto about delaying his bail hearing “for the purposes of making sure we can put our best foot forward.”
If convicted of the charge, Pronto faces up to life in prison.
Bennington police said they were called around 11:15 a.m. Monday with a report of a man attacking a woman on a walkway running between North and School streets, along the Walloomsac River.
Responding officers saw Hamann on the ground with a large cut in her neck and throat. One of those officers provided aid to her until emergency medical technicians arrived, according to police.
Police said they got a description of the attacker and an officer who saw him on School Street engaged him in conversation. A second officer arrived and when the two officers tried to arrest the suspect, later identified as Pronto, he resisted. After a brief struggle, Pronto was taken into custody.
Hamann was taken to Southwestern Medical Center in Bennington, and died there of injuries suffered in the attack, police said. Hamann was the mother of a young child.
Marthage, speaking after the hearing, said investigators were still trying to figure out the connection between Hamann and Pronto. An affidavit filed in support of the murder charge indicated that Pronto knew Hamann, but revealed little else about that connection.
Moments before the attack, according to a court filing, a witness reported Hamann and Pronto passed by each other without appearing to even acknowledge one another.
Later, when confronted by police, Pronto referred to Hamann as “Emily Grace,” reciting her first and middle name.
Bennington Police Chief Paul Doucette declined comment Tuesday, stating, “Further details are not being released at this time.”
A candlelight vigil had been set for Tuesday evening near the scene of the attack.
A Facebook posting shared on many Bennington-related pages called on people to attend the vigil to stand with Hamann’s family.
The Rev. Angela Emerson of St. Peter’s Episcopal Church, which shared a notice of the vigil on its Facebook page Tuesday, said the vigil was being organized by Hamann’s family.
“We asked the family if we could join and they said, ‘Absolutely, everybody is welcome to come to mourn her loss,’” Emerson said. “Most of us in the congregation are going just to show our support for the family.”
“We just all wanted to be together tonight,” Emerson said. “Some part of us is affected.”
An affidavit made public after Tuesday’s arraignment provided additional details from an account gathered from a witness as well as video footage from a nearby security camera.
A witness identified only by her initials,who was working as a visiting home health nurse, had called police late Monday morning, reporting that she saw a man standing on the walkway as she left a client’s home. She told police she felt “something was not right” with the man, who police later identified as Pronto.
Then, she said, she saw Hamann approach from the north side of North Street and walk past Pronto. Hamann and Pronto did not appear to acknowledge each other as Hamann walked by, the witness said, but then she saw Pronto turn and run after Hamann.
At that point, the witness stated, she was already on the phone with a Bennington police dispatcher, explaining what she saw. She saw Pronto throw Hamann to the ground, holding her hands down.
The witness told police she could hear Hamann scream and see her legs kicking.
Pronto then got up, the witness stated, and walked away toward School Street with “something black in his hand.”
At the scene of the attack, Detective Sgt. Jason Burnham wrote in his affidavit, he saw an inhaler with the cap off and a blood-stained prescription bag from a nearby pharmacy. A worker at the pharmacy told police that Hamann had just been there and purchased a pack of long needles.
Police said that, based on a description of the attacker they got at the scene, an officer spotted Pronto on School Street. According to Burnham’s affidavit, Pronto told that officer, “I seen her walking over there” as he looked at the walkway, adding, “I did my share and assaulted her.”
Pronto also told an officer, “Oh, over there, I did what I did.”
Another officer arrived, and when the officers told Pronto to put his hands behind his back, he “started to resist.” The affidavit stated that the officers used an “armbar” and “leg sweep” to take Pronto to the ground.
According to the affidavit, officers then found a knife in one of Pronto’s pockets, and saw that the blade was open with a “reddish-brown” stain on the blade.
At the police station, Pronto declined to talk to investigators.
Burnham wrote in his affidavit that Pronto’s sister, Lauren Pronto, called asking if her brother was in custody.
Lauren Pronto told police that her brother had recently been diagnosed with schizophrenia and days earlier had carved “Murder Time” in a wall at their mother’s residence, Burnham wrote. Police confirmed that information in a search of the home.
