Updated at 4:16 p.m.
A Highgate man is behind bars in the drug-related shooting death early Saturday morning of a Swanton man following a car chase, according to police.
Joshua LaFromboise, 29, was scheduled to appear in Franklin County Superior Court Monday afternoon to face a charge of second-degree murder in the death of Logan Pratt, 33, as well as a seperate charge of attempted second-degree murder.
However, LaFromboise invoked his right to wait a day until entering a plea, so his arraignment was postponed until Tuesday afternoon. He will remain held in custody without bail until that hearing.
LaFramboise was arrested Sunday night at his home on Route 7 in Highgate, where the incident leading to the fatal shooting began, according to Vermont State Police.
Police said Pratt and Brittnie Blanchard, 30, of Swanton, had been at LaFromboise’s home early Saturday morning when an altercation took place.
Blanchard and Pratt fled the home around 5:15 a.m. Saturday in a 2017 Volkswagen Passat, with Blanchard driving and Pratt in the front passenger seat, according to police.
LaFromboise, in a 2012 Subaru Legacy, pursued Blanchard and Pratt, police said.
About four miles south of LaFromboise’s residence on Route 7, LaFromboise fired several shots from a handgun at the Passat, hitting the vehicle and Pratt, according to police.
The Volkswagen’s rear window was shattered, police said, and Pratt was critically injured. The car went off the road, into a field, and then back onto the street with LaFromboise still following the vehicle, according to police.
A chase then passed through several towns, police said, including Highgate, Swanton and St. Albans before Blanchard got to the intersection of Route 207 and Paquette Drive, near the St. Albans and Swanton town line.
At that point, according to police, Blanchard encountered deputies with the Franklin County Sheriff’s Department, who Blanchard waved down as she stopped the car.
Pratt was taken by ambulance to the hospital and died Sunday at the University of Vermont Medical Center in Burlington, police said.
