An early-morning car chase, gunfire, and allegations of stolen drug money and a home invasion by a masked man are among the new details provided in court documents related to the weekend shooting death of a Swanton man.
Joshua LaFromboise, 29, pleaded not guilty Tuesday in Franklin County Superior criminal court in St. Albans to first-degree murder in the death of Logan Pratt, 33, early Saturday.
He is also charged with attempted first-degree murder for allegedly shooting at Pratt’s girlfriend, Brittnie Blanchard, also of Swanton.
The offenses had been upgraded from the initial charges against LaFromboise when he was arrested Sunday: second-degree murder in Pratt’s death and attempted second-degree murder. The changes increase the possible maximum penalty against him to life in prison without parole.
Judge Martin Maley ordered LaFromboise held without bail while awaiting further court action.
According to police, LaFromboise chased a vehicle driven by Blanchard, with Pratt in the passenger seat, for 20 miles through several Franklin County towns early Saturday morning, repeatedly shooting at them, with bullets striking the vehicle and killing Pratt.
Diane Wheeler, a Franklin County deputy state’s attorney prosecuting the case, said the charges were stepped up on the basis of evidence and statements gathered by investigators.
According to an affidavit filed by Detective Sgt. Samuel Truex of the Vermont State Police, LaFromboise reported that he woke up early Saturday morning to find a gun in his face, held by a person he believed had broken into his home and who was wearing a ski mask.
LaFromboise told investigators that person said to him, “Get it” or “Where is it,” according to the affidavit.
“LaFromboise stated that he didn’t have anything,” Truex wrote in the filing. “LaFromboise then grabbed the barrel of the gun when the male went to reach for something on the nightstand.”
He said the man tried to get away and he followed him into the kitchen, where the man pulled the trigger on his gun, but nothing happened, according to the affidavit.
LaFromboise went to get his gun from under his mattress, the filing stated, and went outside the home, where the man got into the passenger seat of a vehicle, turned, and again pulled the trigger of his gun but again nothing happened.
LaFromboise said he then shot at the car as it drove away, the detective wrote in the affidavit, and he denied that he chased after the vehicle.
Asked by a detective why someone would break into his home, “LaFromboise said he was a drug user and had drugs, money and guns in the house. He said he didn’t have enough drugs to be robbed over,” according to the filing.
He also reported he discovered that a locked box in the home, containing between $400 and $800, had been missing, and he later found it about 100 yards down the road from his residence, empty and in a ditch, according to the affidavit.
According to investigators, a witness and surveillance footage revealed that LaFromboise did chase after a vehicle, returning home about 20 minutes later and telling people there he had shot out the taillight of the vehicle he was pursuing.
Back home, the affidavit stated, LaFromboise learned that Blanchard was driving the car he was chasing and that Pratt, a passenger in that vehicle, had been shot and killed.
According to the filing, LaFromboise told a witness something to the effect of, “Oh my god, I didn’t mean to hurt anybody,” and “Oh my god, I’m going to jail for the rest of my life.”
LaFromboise said he had been friends with Pratt and also knew Blanchard, Truex wrote in the affidavit.
Blanchard told police that she drove Pratt to the LaFromboise residence early Saturday morning, dropping him off and then driving a bit before turning around to go back and pick him up. She reported that, when she picked up Pratt he wasn’t running or out of breath, and nothing seemed suspicious.
But, Blanchard told investigators, as she drove away, she saw behind her a “cloud of dust” and a vehicle chasing her. The vehicle, which she believed LaFromboise was driving, pulled up alongside her car and then she heard a “big bang,” according to the affidavit.
Blanchard told police Pratt told her to put her head down and then turned to look out the back window and got shot. Blanchard told police she heard about five “bangs” in a row.
She called 911, the filing stated, and eventually met with a Franklin County Sheriff’s Department deputy. An ambulance then took Pratt to the University of Vermont Medical Center in Burlington, where he died of a gunshot wound to the head.
LaFromboise had been scheduled for arraignment Monday, but invoked his right to wait a day to enter pleas to the charges against him.
The hearing began Tuesday with Andrew Sullivan, a public defender representing LaFromboise, challenging whether there was probable cause to warrant filing the charge of attempted first-degree murder against his client for allegedly shooting at the vehicle with Blanchard in it.
“This was an attempt that allegedly starts with LaFromboise’s concern that he had been robbed at gunpoint and, as evident from the affidavit, that the alleged unidentified assailant was Mr. Lafromboise’s target,” Sullivan told the judge.
“There’s no indication that he knew who the getaway driver was, or was targeting her specifically,“ the defense attorney added.
Judge Maley appeared taken aback at the move to have that charge tossed out.
“That’s not a serious argument, is it, based upon the affidavit as presented,” the judge said.
“I’m sorry, your honor,” Sullivan replied.
“Did you not hear me?” the judge asked. “I said, is that a serious argument? Actually, I said that‘s not a serious argument.”
“Have you read the affidavit?” Maley asked Sullivan.
“Yes, your honor,” the defense attorney replied.
“The court has found probable cause,” the judge said, adding that, based on the affidavit, there is “sufficient admissible evidence” for the prosecution to move forward with the charge.
“The allegations indicate that there was a long attempt by the defendant to follow the vehicle in this matter, firing indiscriminately toward the car with the driver obviously just feet away from the victim in this case, who was killed,” Maley said.
