A 43-year-old Barre woman was charged Monday with involuntary manslaughter in the shooting death of a 45-year-old Barre man last week.
The Vermont State Police arrested Donna Robinson last week for allegedly shooting Franklin Driscoll at a home on 879 N. Main Street in Barre on Thursday around 5:25 p.m., the state police said in a press release.
Robinson pleaded not guilty to the charges against her and is being held without bail at the Chittenden County Correctional Facility.
Driscoll was admitted to Central Vermont Medical Center with a gunshot wound to the abdomen and died early Friday morning, the release said.
The state police said the death appeared to be an “isolated event” between people who knew each other, so it did not pose a threat to the general Barre community. Initial witness interviews indicated that Robinson was taking the gun from Driscoll during an altercation with a different person when it went off accidentally, according to the state police affidavit.
Robinson was arraigned in Washington County Superior Court Monday afternoon for involuntary manslaughter, along with charges of five counts of reckless endangerment, one count of simple assault and two counts of possession of a firearm while having a felony conviction. Robinson was convicted for selling heroin in 2017 and for a stolen-property-related crime in 2012. She appeared at the hearing virtually from the women’s prison in South Burlington.
Judge John Pacht denied the state’s request to also charge Robinson with burglary. At the arraignment, he said there was no evidence that Robinson had not received permission to be on the property, where at least six other people were apparently present at the time of the incident.
Pacht, defense attorney Michael Shane and prosecutor Talon Wendel discussed the nature of the evidence for each charge, which was primarily witness testimony from people at the house during the time of the shooting.
Shane said the case was “thin” and that Robinson had every intention of fighting it, noting that key charges appeared to rely on the statement of a single witness.
Wendel argued that the evidence was bolstered by statements from several other witnesses, who provided corroborating testimony although they had not personally seen the actual shooting.
Pacht said, “I think there’s going to be a lot more the state’s going to have to show as to how it occurred,” but that the evidence was “enough” at this point to justify having Robinson held without bail. He also cited the seriousness of the manslaughter offense, which could lead to a life sentence.
Pacht and the attorneys plan to schedule a weight-of-evidence hearing within the week.
Correction: A previous version of this story misidentified the judge presiding over the case.
