The man arrested for the murder of a 76-year-old Morristown man is known to local authorities as an illegal drug user and lived with the victim off and on for many years, according to court documents.
Theodore Farnham, 54, of Waterbury, had been arrested on Thursday and was arraigned on Friday afternoon on the charge of second degree murder in the death of Richard Cote.
Farnham and Cote were known to have had a long-standing relationship that was at times intimate, local police said in an affidavit, and Farnham was captured on video at Cote’s house the night he was killed.
Farnham pleaded not guilty to the charge in Franklin County Superior criminal court, where the hearing was held.
Local police said that they found Cote dead in his Morristown home while conducting a wellness check on the morning of July 24, according to court documents. An autopsy found he had been strangled, possibly smothered and hit in places all over his body; police said the extent of damage suggested an “emotionally charged assault.”
Police said they had determined that Farnham and Cote were together the night of the alleged murder in Cote’s home from approximately 9:45 p.m. to approximately 2 a.m. In court documents, local police reported that Farnham claimed that Cote appeared fine when he left, but admitted that he had stolen Cote’s credit card and used it several times that morning.
In the 45-page affidavit, Morristown Det. Lt. Todd Baxter, who was previously familiar with Farnham as an illegal drug user, wrote that the weeklong investigation involved surveillance footage, phone tracking and interviews with Cote’s acquaintances as well as two interviews with Farnham himself before his ultimate arrest on Thursday.
In those interviews, police said that Farnham told them that Cote frequently made sexual advances, which he resisted, according to court documents. Cote had brought up his desire for a more serious relationship as recently as three weeks ago, police said that Farnham told them, and he did not like the repeated pressure. The affidavit also said that Farnham admitted to police that he had stolen from Cote on many occasions, some of which Cote had known about.
Farnham appeared in court in St. Albans remotely on Friday, calling in from Northeast Correctional Complex in St. Johnsbury. Attorneys for both the defense and prosecution also appeared remotely, as the hearing had been moved on short notice from the Lamoille County Superior criminal court.
Second degree murder carries a penalty of life in prison with a presumptive minimum of 20 years.
During the arraignment, defense attorney Kirk Williams challenged the probable cause ruling issued earlier in the day by Judge Alison Arms, arguing that Farnham was placed at the scene but not definitively at the time that the murder took place.
State’s Attorney Aliena Gerhard said that she had just received lab results from DNA testing that further incriminated Farnham, including a shirt Farnham had been seen on video wearing that was later discovered in Cote’s truck, with Cote’s DNA on it. A delay in filing those results with the court led to a brief hold. After reviewing the test results, Williams withdrew his probable cause challenge.
Williams did not challenge the prosecution’s request that Farnham be held without bail. Judge Arms imposed a no-contact order for three acquaintances of Cote who were named in the affidavit.
A status hearing will be held in the near future in Lamoille County criminal court when a date will be set for determining Farnham’s long-term holding conditions.
