Documents filed in support of a first-degree murder charge in a midday shooting as the suspect drove his car near downtown Rutland last fall offer new details of the killing and the motive behind it.
Up until this week, police have said little about the probe since the Nov. 7 shooting death of 26-year-old Jonathan Naranjo, of Brooklyn, New York.
However, charging documents made public following Wednesday’s arrest of Trayvon Kisling, 18, of Staten Island, detail steps police took in the investigation that led to Kisling being charged with first-degree murder in Naranjo’s death.
Kisling pleaded not guilty to the charge on Wednesday in Rutland County Superior criminal division. He also pleaded not guilty to separate charges of aggravated domestic assault and obstruction of justice in a later alleged assault against a juvenile.
He was ordered held without bail Wednesday and faces life in prison on the murder charge alone.
In court filings, Vermont State Police Detective Sgt. Seth Richardson wrote that authorities used video from nearby businesses and residences from where the shooting took place to capture an image of a sport utility vehicle, a Blue Ford Explorer, following the Nissan Rogue that Naranjo was driving in alone.
“It appears the Blue Ford Explorer drove next to the Nissan and stopped briefly, during this time multiple apparent gunshots were heard,” Richardson wrote.
A witness, Brent Poczobut, told police he was in the Ford Explorer that was driven by Kisling, who he referred to as “G,” on the day of the homicide and saw Kisling drive alongside Naranjo and open fire into Naranjo’s vehicle, Richardson wrote.
“Feeling they were about to shoot at each other, Poczobut crouched onto the backseat floor of ‘G’s’ vehicle and put his hands over his head,” according to the charging document. “He last saw Naranjo with his arm held up.”
A woman in the front passenger seat tried to climb into the backseat with Poczobut, Richardson wrote, then fled through neighborhood streets and eventually out of Rutland after the shooting.
Naranjo had been driving near the intersection of State Street and Cleveland Avenue when he was shot, according to police. He then crashed his vehicle into a car parked on the side of the road and was pronounced dead at the scene by medical personnel.
Poczobut reported to police that Kisling and Naranjo were in a dispute over territory for dealing illegal drugs in the Rutland area, the filings showed.
That Ford Explorer was found Nov. 8, the day after the fatal shooting, destroyed by fire and abandoned on Dodd Road in Fairfield, according to police.
“Members of the Vermont State Police Crime Scene Search Team processed the burned vehicle and located .40 cartridge casings on the front passenger floor,” according to the charging documents.
“The Vermont Forensic Laboratory conducted a comparison of the cartridge casing to the two .40 cartridge casings found at the shooting scene on State Street, Rutland, Vt,” police wrote. “The Vermont Forensic Laboratory concluded all three cartridge casings were fired from the same firearm.”
Kisling was taken into custody Wednesday after he was spotted driving by police in Brandon.
After his arraignment on Wednesday, Kisling was back in court Thursday where an “interests of justice” hearing took place.
The hearing was needed because Kisling is 18 years old. Under Vermont law, he is considered a juvenile until the age of 19, according to a statute that went into effect on June 1, 2022. A juvenile can still be charged in adult court provided the offense is one of about a dozen of the most serious in Vermont, including murder, as is this case.
At Thursday’s hearing, the question then became where Kisling would be housed while awaiting trial and under what conditions.
Tyler Allen of the Vermont Department for Children and Families testified during the hearing that his department had no secure places to hold an 18-year-old juvenile in custody in or out of state. The state closed the Woodside Juvenile Rehabilitation Center in Essex, the state’s only juvenile detention center, in October 2020 and has not yet opened a new one.
Joshua Rutherford, of the state Department of Corrections, then testified that his department is currently holding two other 18-year-olds in custody in Vermont jails, following similar hearings as the one taking place Thursday for Kisling. He said the corrections department, if ordered, could continue to hold Kisling as well.
Rutland County Deputy State’s Attorney Daron Raleigh called for Kisling to remain in custody with the corrections department, citing the “incredibly serious” nature of the offense.
Chris Davis, an attorney representing Kisling, said there was little he could argue since there was no other place in state or out of state for his client to be placed. He said his client preferred not to be placed in isolation at the facility.
Judge Cortland Corsones took the matter under advisement and issued a ruling late Thursday afternoon allowing for Kisling to remain in an adult jail and granting Davis’ request that his client be permitted contact with other incarcerated people.
The judge wrote in his ruling that if he prohibited Kisling from having contact with other people in custody then Kisling would “effectively, be placed in isolation” in a small cell.
“Such a restriction would be detrimental to his emotional and physical wellbeing,” Corsones wrote.