WHITE RIVER JUNCTION — After a two-year investigation led to his arrest last month, Paul Lachapelle Jr. pleaded not guilty on Tuesday to first-degree murder and conspiracy to commit first-degree murder. Both charges carry the possibility of life in prison.
Lachapelle, 28, is accused of killing Justin Gilliam in Springfield in the spring of 2022. Documents in the case reveal how police worked a web of sources to gradually connect the dots between the killing and a series of violent gun and drug crimes centered around Valley Street in Springfield.
The investigation led police to subpoena prison phone records, scour a graveyard for ballistic evidence and search the wreckage of a burned out car, eventually pinning the case to Lachapelle, who police tracked down in New Hampshire in August.
On Tuesday, Windsor County State’s Attorney Ward Goodenough requested Lachapelle be held without bail, citing the “indications of (the alleged crime’s) premeditation.”
He also told the court that Lachapelle has “connections to ongoing drug activity as well as out of state drug activity.”
Multiple witnesses told the state that after allegedly killing Gilliam, Lachapelle had put a “third notch” in his belt, indicating the murder was his third. In court, Goodenough referred to those claims, arguing the accused may be connected to other crimes.
Vermont Superior Judge Lisa Warren ordered Lachapelle held without bail, pending a “weight of the evidence” hearing. That hearing is not yet scheduled.
