A Connecticut man accused of killing one man and seriously injuring another in Brookfield in May — and then fleeing the country — appeared in a Vermont courtroom Monday to face charges, including murder.
Devon Dennis, 43, of Hartford, Connecticut, pleaded not guilty during his arraignment in Rutland County Superior criminal court to several charges, including second-degree murder and attempted second-degree murder in a shooting police described as drug-related.
The shooting, according to police, took place on May 12 and left Juan Sierra, 27, of Springfield, Massachusetts, dead and Miguel Fuentes, 29, also of Springfield, injured.
Orange County State’s Attorney Colin Seaman requested during Monday’s hearing that Dennis be held without bail while the case remains pending.
Judge Cortland Corsones granted that request.
Attorney David Sleigh, representing Dennis, told the judge he did not object to his client being held without bail pending a future weight-of-the-evidence hearing to determine if Dennis would continue to be held.
Corsones said that hearing would be set as quickly as possible.
Sleigh, though, did tell the judge that he was “puzzled” and “dismayed” that the hearing Monday had been moved to Rutland County at the last minute when it had initially been set to take place in Orange County. As a result of the last-minute change, Sleigh said, he had to appear by video while his client was brought in person and appeared alone in the courtroom seated at the defense table.
Sleigh said he would have shown up in person in Rutland had he received notice of the change for the 1 p.m. hearing before 1:03 p.m. when he got word of the move. He called the process “unsatisfactory” and “shoddy.”
Corsones responded that it was his understanding the case was moved to Rutland because there was no transport available to take Dennis to the Orange County courthouse in Chelsea, but there was a transport available to take him from Marble Valley Regional Correctional Facility in Rutland, where he has been held in custody, to the nearby Rutland court.
“As I understand it, the whole purpose of transferring the case to Rutland was so that it could be done in person,” the judge said. “For whatever reason, it didn’t work as intended.”
An affidavit filed in court by Vermont State Police Detective Sgt. Tyson Kinney in support of the charges outlined the police investigation leading up to Dennis’ arrest.
According to the filing, police received a 911 call around 5:50 p.m. on May 12 reporting a deceased man outside a residence at 8769 Route 14 in Brookfield.
At roughly the same time, the affidavit stated, police also received a separate 911 call reporting an erratic driver near the intersection of Route 14 and Route 65. The driver of that vehicle, later identified as Feuntes, flagged down other motorists before stopping. Other motorists who came to his aid discovered that he had been shot in the face, the affidavit stated.
One motorist who stopped to assist Feuntes then drove him to Gifford Medical Center in Randolph and later reported to investigators that he overheard Fuentes saying in his cellphone that his friend had been shot and killed at a residence several miles away at a home on Route 14 in Brookfield, according to police.
Police said responding officers to the scene on Route 14 found a deceased man, later identified as Sierra, face down in the driveway with spent firearm casings also located in the driveway.
According to Kinney’s affidavit, witnesses reported that Dennis had been staying at the residence where the shooting took place and dealing drugs there. On May 12, when Feuntes and Sierra went to the residence, Dennis shot them both, Kinney said in the affidavit.
There was a dispute, witnesses told police, over who could sell drugs to whom, and that’s when Dennis shot the two men, the affidavit stated.
On May 13, one day following the shooting, police said, Dennis flew from Connecticut to Jamaica. In July, he was arrested by waiting law enforcement officials as he arrived at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York.
Dennis was brought to Vermont last Thursday to face the charges against him. If convicted of the offenses, Dennis could be sentenced to up to life behind bars.
