The Vermont Parole Board on Tuesday declined to release from prison a man convicted of strangling his wife three decades ago, saying Gregory Fitzgerald would be “a detriment” to the public and “potentially harmful” to the victim’s family.
Fitzgerald, 66, was found guilty of first-degree murder in the death of Amy Fitzgerald in 1993 and sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. Fitzgerald denied killing his 30-year-old wife — until last year, when he struck a deal with the Chittenden County State’s Attorney’s Office. At that time, he agreed to withdraw a state lawsuit and admit to the crime in exchange for a reduced sentence of 35 years to life in prison.
With credit for good behavior and pre-sentence jail time, Fitzgerald retroactively qualified for parole in 2019. On Tuesday morning, he appeared for the first time before the three-member parole board via video link from Northern State Correctional Facility in Newport.
After Amy Fitzgerald’s brother, Alan Zeltserman, asked the board to deny his parole request, Gregory Fitzgerald told board members he would accept whatever decision they made.
“I’m actually quite at peace with myself right now,” he said. “I’ve come to accept whatever the board decides today.”
Zeltserman, who also appeared by video and whose statement was read by a victim services specialist, said police believed Fitzgerald had been planning to kill him, too, as part of what investigators have described as an elaborate scheme to get rid of his wife.
“A police detective opined to us at the time that Fitzgerald was probably planning to murder me and blame my sister’s murder on me,” Zeltserman said in the statement read on his behalf. “I shudder to think what would have happened to me.”
Zeltserman also described how his parents never recovered from the death of their only daughter, one of three children.
“Shortly before she died, my mother Ellen reminded me that when she passed away, it would be up to my brother and I to see that Fitzgerald remained in prison,” he said.
The Vermont Department of Corrections said Fitzgerald met the basic requirements for parole — such as completing programming and finding transitional housing for offenders. But his parole officer, Isiah Moore, expressed some reservations.
“This wasn’t just a crime of passion. There was a lot of planning and manipulation that went into this crime,” Moore told the board. “What’s going to happen when he gets released? And how do you mitigate all the concerns, you know? Is that ever possible?”
In response to the parole board members’ questions about his plans if he were to be released, Fitzgerald said he expected to work as a handyman at a property management company co-owned by a formerly incarcerated person. He also said he was hoping to complete work on a bachelor’s degree.
With shoulder-length hair and a gray mustache, Fitzgerald appeared entirely different from images of him taken during his trial in 1994.
After board members deliberated privately for about 20 minutes, board chair Dean George announced that they had denied Fitzgerald’s request. “We’re finding at this time you would be a detriment to the community and potentially harmful to the family of the victim,” George said.
Fitzgerald nodded and thanked the board before the video feed ended.
Amy Fitzgerald’s body was found in a condo in Shelburne, where she had been living while pursuing a master’s degree at the University of Vermont. She was also a captain in the U.S. Army. Family members have said they believe her husband killed her to collect on a $100,000 life insurance policy.
To avoid getting caught, police said, Gregory Fitzgerald had accomplices and an elaborate scheme to travel from Texas, where his wife believed he was enrolled in college. Instead, he’d been dismissed from the University of Texas and had a secret girlfriend.
Under the established process, Fitzgerald’s case would come up for a parole board review every year. But the corrections department could also request at any time that the board interview him for parole consideration, said Mary Jane Ainsworth, director of the board.
Besides parole, she said, incarcerated individuals can also be released to the community under the corrections department’s furlough program.
