Federal prosecutors in Vermont say they have identified a “person of interest” in the killings of two Massachusetts men whose bodies were found in the woods in Eden in October.
Theodore Bland, 28, of Burlington, appeared Friday in U.S. District Court in Burlington for a hearing in a drug and firearms case unrelated to the homicides, stemming from incidents in March and September of last year.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Jason Turner, a federal prosecutor, wrote in a court filing submitted this week that Bland should remain behind bars as he awaits resolution of the federal case, and referenced an ongoing probe into the deaths of the two Massachusetts men.
“The Government can confirm that Bland is a person of interest in the homicide investigation,” the prosecutor wrote. “The United States will have no further comment on that investigation at this time.”
The filing does not provide any more information about any possible link of Bland to the homicides or what role, if any, he may have played.
Investigators have not identified any suspects in the case, and they have released little information, other than to say that it may be drug-related.
Vermont State Police reported Oct. 25 discovering the bodies of Jahim Solomon, 21, of Pittsfield, and Eric White, 21, of Chicopee, in a wooded area of Eden, about a mile apart from each other. The families of the two men had reported them missing on Oct. 15.
The families told police the two men had been traveling together in the areas around Burlington, Lowell, Morrisville and Stowe.
Autopsies later revealed that Solomon died of multiple gunshot wounds to the head, while White died of a single gunshot wound to the head. Both deaths were ruled homicides.
Bland had initially been charged in federal court in late October with a single count of possessing a firearm — a Mossberg shotgun — while being an unlawful user of controlled substances.
On Thursday, a new indictment against Bland accused him not only of that firearms offense, but also of two counts of distributing heroin in Vermont in September.
Bland entered not guilty pleas Friday to the new charges against him.
Magistrate Judge Kevin Doyle granted the prosecution’s request to continue to hold Bland in custody while the case is pending, rejecting a bid by his attorney, David Sleigh, to allow his release to attend a residential treatment facility for substance use.
Bland was taken into custody on Oct. 24 in Tennessee for allegedly violating the conditions of release from earlier unrelated charges in Vermont state court. Turner, the federal prosecutor, wrote in his filing that Bland was in possession of controlled substances and drug paraphernalia at the time of his arrest in Tennessee.
According to Turner’s filing, Bland was initially charged in state court after brandishing a shotgun while threatening the driver of a vehicle at Simon’s convenience store in South Burlington on March 17.
“Two women who were in that car with the threatened driver got into Bland’s vehicle with him and spent the next four hours smoking crack cocaine while driving around Vermont with the loaded shotgun in the vehicle,” Turner wrote.
According to South Burlington Police, authorities learned during the investigation that the two women had been with a Chittenden County man who was soliciting them for sex. One of the women called Bland asking for help, police said in a press release at the time.
Bland pleaded not guilty to state charges including reckless endangerment and was released on conditions, including that he abide by a 24-hour curfew at a Burlington residence.
In his filing, Turner wrote, “The timing of his presence in Tennessee strongly suggests that he intended to avoid contact with law enforcement in Vermont.”
Sleigh, Bland’s attorney, contended during Friday’s court hearing that the prosecution appeared to be trying to hold Bland in custody as they probed the homicide case.
“It really is a sort of thinly veiled plea for investigatory detention,” Sleigh said, adding that there had been scant evidence presented by the prosecution of his client’s alleged connection to the homicide case.
In addition, Sleigh said, in the state case against his client stemming from the March incident at the South Burlington convenience store, Bland was coming to the aid of the two women.
“It was an effort by Mr. Bland to prevent the sexual exploitation of two women with whom he was acquainted,” Sleigh said.
Bland is being held at the Northwest State Correctional Facility in St. Albans.
