When they heard a woman had been killed in a knife attack in downtown Bennington this week, neighbors said they weren’t surprised that it was Darren Pronto who was accused of the crime.
They said they’d had run-ins with the 32-year-old Pownal man in recent months while he lived next to them in a five-apartment building on Middle Pownal Road.
“Had the police taken our worries and complaints seriously and actually done something about this, that poor girl would probably still be alive today!!” Christina Sample, one of the neighbors, wrote on a Facebook post.
“I feel that her blood is definitely on their hands,” Sample wrote, “and I guarantee they regret not doing something about him sooner.”
Pronto is now behind bars. He pleaded not guilty Tuesday to first-degree murder in the attack and slashing death late Monday morning of 26-year-old Emily Hamann on a walkway along a river near downtown Bennington.
Olivia Burdick and Jacob Zampini, who live together in an apartment in the same building as Pronto, pointed Wednesday to an incident Dec. 1, when they say they called police after Pronto punched out a window on their sliding glass door and threatened to slit their throats.
That same night, Sample said Wednesday, Pronto threatened he was going to have Sample’s two young children “abducted.”
Sample lives in an apartment in the building with her two children and her partner, Joshua Allen. They are across the hall from where Pronto lives with his mother.
A state police press release stated that on Dec. 1 troopers responded to Middle Pownal Road in Pownal for a “reported citizens dispute,” with “subsequent investigation” revealing that Pronto had broken windows at a property. Police charged him with unlawful mischief and handed him a citation to appear Feb. 1 in Bennington County Superior criminal court.
Sample said the charges should have been much stiffer. “That’s all he was charged with after attempting a home invasion, destroying property, and threatening the lives of two infants,” she posted to Facebook.
Sample and Allen said Wednesday they also spoke to the trooper who responded in the broken window incident on Dec. 1, telling him they believed Pronto posed a serious danger to others.
“We had warned the police,” Sample said. “We said if something is not done about this man, someone is going to end up dead.”
Allen said he told the trooper he was a military veteran and the trooper told him that he was a military veteran, too.
“We were talking, I said listen, if this dude comes into my house, I’m armed and I’m going to protect my family whichever way I can,” Allen said he told the trooper. “He patted me on the back and said, ‘You do what you have to do.’”
In the past few months, Burdick estimated, she called police at least three times about Pronto, from broken windows to harassing behavior to an alleged violation of a stalking order.
Burdick said she didn’t believe police took her complaints seriously.
“They wouldn’t really listen to me,” she said. “I also had my father call; he called about three times as well.”
She said that, of all the times she called police, they responded only once for the incident involving the broken windows.
Vermont Public Safety Commissioner Michael Schirling said Wednesday afternoon that state police had responded when called regarding Pronto. He said records showed that state police had only two “contacts” with Pronto in the past year.
One was on Dec. 1 for the incident involving the broken windows and another was on Jan. 7, when he was served with two no-stalking orders that had been granted stemming from that earlier case.
Records from Bennington County Superior civil court show Allen and Zampini each filed for separate protection orders against Pronto on stalking complaints. Judge John Valente granted those temporary orders Jan. 6 and set a hearing for Jan. 28, when the final orders would be considered, according to court filings.
Burdick, reached again later Wednesday, said she had reviewed her phone, and had called 911 not only on Dec. 1, but also on Nov. 1 and Jan. 10, with the last one a complaint that Pronto was already violating the no-stalking order he had been given days earlier.
Schirling, contacted again, said he would need to do more research, trying to match Burdick’s name to the complaint. He said the Jan. 10 call may be so recent it is not showing in the records he had reviewed.
Burdick and Zampini, as well as Sample and Allen, described Pronto’s erratic behavior, which they said frightened not only them, but others in the building. Burdick and Zampini said they would hear him banging on walls and one time threatening to smash someone with a hammer.
Burdick said that since her boyfriend, Zampini, works overnight, her mother would often come stay with her for protection, fearing what Pronto might do.
Criminal record
Pronto’s criminal record dates back a few years.
According to records on file in Bennington County Superior criminal court, three cases had been brought against Pronto over the past six years.
Because of the age of the cases, the only information available through the court Wednesday was on the docket sheets, documents that track key dates and actions taken.
In 2015, Pronto was charged with a misdemeanor offense of obstruction of justice. He later pleaded guilty to a charge of providing false information to a law enforcement officer and was ordered to take part in the community reparative board process.
Also in 2015, Pronto was charged with a misdemeanor offense of domestic assault. He pleaded guilty, his sentence was deferred for 18 months and he was placed on probation. A later notice of probation violation was filed, and following an exam, Pronto was deemed incompetent, and that violation was dismissed.
Then, in 2017, Pronto was charged with petty larceny and providing false information to a police officer. He pleaded guilty to the petty larceny charge and the other charge was dropped. Pronto was sentenced to 30 to 60 days in jail, all suspended on probation.
A notice was later filed, alleging that Pronto had violated his probation. After an exam, Pronto was deemed incompetent and the violation was dismissed.
Pronto’s mental health is also likely to be at issue in his latest case.
Pronto’s sister, Lauren Pronto, told police after her brother was taken into custody Monday that he had recently been diagnosed with schizophrenia, and a few days earlier had carved “Murder Time” in a dining room wall at their mother’s home.
His neighbors say they are concerned that somehow Pronto will get released again.
“If he does,” Sample said Wednesday, she fears that “he will definitely come back and do to us what he did to (Hamann).”