A man who federal authorities called “an exceedingly violent person causing significant recent harm in the Rutland community” is facing five gun and drug-dealing charges in federal court.
Lawrence Jackson, 50, of Rutland was indicted Dec. 29 on four counts of distributing or intending to distribute cocaine, as well as one count of possessing a firearm despite a past criminal conviction.
Federal prosecutors asked the U.S. District Court in Vermont to keep Jackson in custody while awaiting trial, arguing that he had violated conditions of release from a November conviction, and has a “serious criminal history dating back to 1989.”
In addition to that criminal record, federal prosecutors said, Jackson is too dangerous to be released, based on the testimony of witnesses who described several grisly assaults Jackson allegedly committed against women, according to court documents.
Prosecutors said a government investigation has so far uncovered multiple allegations that Jackson had raped, pistol-whipped and attempted to traffic women who were addicted to drugs.
Court documents allege that, on one occasion, Jackson burned a woman’s skin using a butane torch, while on another he threatened a woman at gunpoint because he thought she had taken his drugs.
Rutland police arrested Jackson, also known as “Boo-Bee,” during a traffic stop on Nov. 23. About an hour before that, state, local and federal authorities carried out a warrant on Jackson’s Killington Avenue apartment but did not find him, according to a criminal complaint filed in federal court Dec. 2.
When he was arrested, Jackson was carrying almost a pound of cocaine and $2,000 in cash on him, police allege, along with drug paraphernalia. Included in the cash was a folded $1 bill with a brown substance on it that tested positive for fentanyl, police said.
Court documents allege the search of Jackson’s apartment yielded three guns, including a Taurus .410/.45 caliber handgun, which authorities called a “particularly effective and dangerous weapon.”
“An initial assessment of Jackson’s criminal history indicates Jackson likely falls into the sentencing provisions of the Armed Career Criminal Act,” prosecutors said in their request to keep Jackson in custody, “which mandates a 15-year incarcerative sentence should Jackson be convicted” of possessing the gun.
Jackson is represented by a federal public defender. He is scheduled to appear in U.S District Court in Burlington Jan. 25 before Judge Kevin Doyle.
