A 20-year-old man sentenced earlier this year to 30 months in prison on a federal firearms charge is set to stand trial in December on a manslaughter charge stemming from a 2021 shooting death in Rutland.

Kahliq Richardson, formerly of Rutland, allegedly shot 19-year-old Jonah Pandiani in the head, killing him instantly, while both men were at the Quality Inn on April 3, 2021. 

During a brief hearing in the manslaughter case Monday held over video from Rutland County Superior criminal court, Rutland County State’s Attorney Ian Sullivan, the prosecutor, and Patrick Lamb, an attorney for Richardson, both told Judge Cortland Corsones the matter was on track for a trial in December. 

Richardson was sentenced in August 2023 in federal court in Burlington to a 30-month prison term for possessing a firearm while being an unlawful user of controlled substances, according to court records. 

The investigation into Pandiani’s death led to the federal firearms charge, in addition to a charge of voluntary manslaughter.

According to federal prosecutors, the homicide investigation revealed Richardson had a history of drug use and had been using crack cocaine in the hours leading up to the shooting. 

Court records stated that one witness described Richardson as “showboating” with a firearm in the motel room at the Quality Inn when the fatal shooting took place, with several people there.

Pandiani was sitting in a chair, with his back turned, when Richardson came up behind him and put the gun to Pandiani’s neck and then to his head, according to court records. The gun went off and the bullet traveled from the center-left of the crown of Pandiani’s head steeply downward into his neck, where it lodged in his throat, court records stated.

“On these facts,” prosecutors wrote in a court filing, “it is not plausible that the gun went off ‘accidentally’ as the defendant claims.” Instead, the prosecutors said, “at the very least, the defendant’s conduct was grossly reckless, and he displayed an obvious lack of concern for human life.”

The felony manslaughter charge carries a minimum sentence of one year in jail and a maximum penalty of up to 15 years.