A Bennington man accused of killing his ex-girlfriend and burying her near a gravel pit is asking the court to dismiss his murder charge, saying the state’s evidence rests solely on two jailed informants.
The defendant, Deven Moffitt, 33, is charged with second-degree murder in the death of Jessica Hildenbrandt in July 2019. Hildenbrandt of Ballston Spa, New York, had been missing for a couple of months when her remains were found near an old gravel pit in Searsburg — but they weren’t identified as hers until July 2020.
A medical examiner ruled that Hildenbrandt, 43, died of a homicide and, in 2022, Moffitt was charged with killing her. He has since been detained without the option to post bail.
Now, Moffitt’s attorney is asking the Bennington Superior Court to throw out his murder charge, saying the prosecution’s evidence in the case is “insufficient.”
In a court filing on Thursday, defense attorney Rob Sussman said the authorities have no physical evidence, witnesses, surveillance video or confession tying Moffitt to his former girlfriend’s death. Sussman underscored that the medical examiner’s office could not determine how Hildenbrandt was killed.
The attorney said state police have “relied exclusively” on the statements of two people who claimed that Moffitt implicated himself in Hildenbrandt’s killing during his conversations with them. Both people, Sussman said, were incarcerated at a certain point in their interviews with police.
“The only evidence available to the State to show that Mr. Moffitt is guilty of the crime charged — or that the crime charged even occurred — comes via two individuals who are both trying to get out of jail,” Sussman said in his five-page motion. Both were unnamed witnesses included in state police’s affidavit of probable cause to charge Moffitt.
The lead prosecutor, Deputy State’s Attorney Jared Bianchi, told VTDigger the motion does not accurately reflect the state’s evidence.
“We look forward to responding to the motion by the deadline set by the court,” he said in an email.
The state has until May 31 to respond, the same day that a hearing on the issue has been scheduled.
The police affidavit shows one of the witnesses told police Moffitt had made comments to them about having gotten rid of someone and wanted their help with moving a body. The other witness, according to the affidavit, said Moffitt had talked about strangling a woman who tried to take his money and getting rid of a cellphone.
State police earlier said the investigative work that led them to Moffitt included analyzing the content and location data of cellphone calls, text messages and call records with the Vermont Department of Corrections.
Police also said they interviewed Hildenbrandt’s family, friends, acquaintances and people whose lives intersected with hers and Moffitt’s. Investigators learned that she and Moffit became romantically involved in November 2017 while he was serving a prison sentence in Vermont. They were introduced by a common friend.
Authorities said the last time Hildenbrandt’s cellphone transmitted data in her established pattern was around the afternoon of July 14, 2019, in the area of Moffitt’s mother’s residence. She had stayed there earlier as the woman’s caregiver.
Moffitt is scheduled for a 10-day jury trial in November, during which Bianchi has requested the court allow jurors to visit the site where Hildenbrandt’s remains were found.
