Updated at 6:07 p.m.
A Massachusetts man who police were searching for after a fatal shooting in Bennington last week is in custody, according to police.
Bennington police announced Monday evening that Raul Cardona, 28, of Springfield, Massachusetts, had turned himself in at the Bennington Police Department.
He faces a charge of second-degree murder in the shooting death last Wednesday of Patrick Mullinnex, 38, of Springfield, according to court documents. He is scheduled to be arraigned on Tuesday.
Police said Mullinnex, 38, was shot several times in the chest at a Pleasant Street apartment around 9:15 Wednesday morning and was dead when they arrived on scene.
Mullinnex was one of four people accused of kidnapping a Springfield man on July 30 in an apparent dispute over drugs.
Earlier on Monday, another one of the four — Zachary Russell, 25, of Bennington — pleaded not guilty to felony charges of kidnapping, aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, burglary into an occupied dwelling, aiding in the commission of assault and robbery with a weapon, as well as the misdemeanor offense of interfering with access to emergency services.
Jesse LaFlam Sr., 49, and Christopher Merritt, 40, both of Springfield, had pleaded not guilty to the same charges on Friday.
According to Vermont State Police, the four men entered a Springfield home in the wee hours of July 30, assaulted the homeowner, Travis Osmer, and restrained him at gunpoint along with Ashley Osmer, three young children, and visitors Dustine Lombard, Brandi Vilkauskas and Michael Myers. All the people in the house live in Springfield.
Investigators said LaFlam, Merritt, Russell and Mullinnex forced Myers to leave the house, robbed him of cash and held him at a location in Chester, but Myers escaped. Both Myers and Travis Osmer had minor injuries. No one else was injured.
Myers, 30, told police that the men who abducted him had also asked for drugs but that he had stopped dealing drugs about two weeks earlier, according to the police statement written by Detective Trooper Jason Lengfellner. Myers reportedly said he’d sold “a multitude of illegal narcotics.”
LaFlam and Merritt entered their pleas in Windham County Superior criminal court; Russell entered his plea in Windsor County Superior criminal court.
Russell did not object to an order that he be held without bail before trial. The court ordered him not to contact a specific handful of people in connection with the case.
Russell’s attorney on Monday, Albie Fox, agreed to serve as a temporary stand-in for the arraignment. Fox requested a weight-of-the-evidence hearing on Russell’s behalf and also requested a speedy trial.
— Ella Ruehsen and Maggie Cassidy
