The criminal case surrounding a high-profile hit-and-run that killed a well-known Rutland County dairy farmer in 2016 was back in court this week after a judge’s ruling threw the defendant’s nearly 20-year sentence into question.
Thomas H. Velde Jr., 48, was sentenced in 2018 to 19 years in jail after pleading guilty to charges of leaving the scene with death resulting and gross negligent operation with death resulting.
Leo Branchaud, 57, was killed in the April 2016 crash on Gulf Road in Tinmouth. Initially, Velde’s mother tried to take the blame, but police said video cameras from outside the farm revealed that Velde was the driver of the vehicle that fled the scene.
Both charges carried so-called habitual offender enhancements because of Velde’s lengthy criminal record, meaning each could have been punishable by up to life imprisonment.
But Velde has since successfully challenged his sentence through a civil process known as post-conviction relief. Judge Mary Miles Teachout ruled in November that one of Velde’s prior guilty pleas — on a 2009 trespassing charge — was defective and could no longer be used to treat him as a habitual offender.
“As the transcript shows, it is undisputed that when he pled guilty to that charge in 2009, he did not agree to the facts upon which the charge was based,” Teachout wrote.
As a result, he would need to be resentenced, she concluded.
Branchaud’s widow, Tami Carboni-Branchaud, said in an interview on Friday that the case’s resurfacing was a cause for distress.
“I think it’s ludicrous that this person killed my husband on camera and eight years later we’re sitting in court again,” she said.
The first hearing in the case since Teachout’s ruling took place Monday in Rutland County Superior criminal court. At that hearing, Rutland County State’s Attorney Ian Sullivan, the prosecutor, told Judge Cortland Corsones he had appealed Teachout’s ruling to the Vermont Supreme Court.
“Our request would be to stay a sentencing proceeding in this matter until that appeal is decided,” Sullivan said.
“I think it does make sense to stay resentencing until the appeal is determined,” Corsones replied.
Velde’s trial had started in March 2018. The prosecution wrapped up its case when Velde agreed to plead guilty to the two felony offenses.
As part of the plea deal, prosecutors were permitted to ask for a sentence of up to life in prison, while his attorney was able to argue for any lesser sentence.
Former Rutland County State’s Attorney Rose Kennedy, the prosecutor at the time, asked the judge to impose a sentence of 25 years to life in prison.
Velde’s attorney asked for a sentence of four to 20 years for his client.
Community members have filled the courtroom in Rutland whenever hearings have been held in the case in support of Branchaud’s widow. That was the case again Monday for the brief hearing that took place.
Following Branchaud’s death, community members also volunteered to help keep the farm running, signing up in shifts to make sure the cows continued to be milked to maintain their value before they were eventually sold off.
Should Teachout’s ruling stand, Velde could face up to 15 years in prison on each of the charges in which he entered guilty pleas at resentencing for a total of 30 years in jail.
Asked Friday if he intended to seek a longer sentence for Velde than the 19-year prison term imposed at the original hearing, Sullivan, the prosecutor, responded he was “confident” in his appeal and didn’t believe that a new sentencing hearing would be needed.
