BURLINGTON — A Bennington man accused of killing his ex-girlfriend in 2019, whose murder charge was later dismissed, has been ordered to serve 12½ years in prison on federal drug and firearms charges.
Judge Christina Reiss sentenced 35-year-old Deven Moffitt on Tuesday in federal court in Burlington after listening to arguments from his attorney and the prosecutor.
The federal charges against Moffitt stemmed from an encounter with police in June 2022. That’s when they sought to arrest him in the 2019 death of his former girlfriend, Jessica Hildenbrandt, 43, of Ballston Spa, New York.
Earlier this year, the Bennington County State’s Attorney’s Office formally dismissed a murder charge against Moffitt, who had pleaded not guilty to killing Hildenbrandt, after prosecutors failed to confirm the identity of Hildenbrandt’s remains by the trial’s start date.
The prison term imposed by Reiss was far less than the 30 years to life the prosecution had been seeking, but more than the seven years behind bars sought by the defense.
The judge opened the hearing Tuesday by stating she was not taking into consideration the homicide case that had been brought, and later dropped, against Moffitt.
“I’m not going to sentence you for a murder that is not before the court,” Reiss said.
Following a May 2024 trial, a federal jury convicted Moffitt of possessing with intent to distribute fentanyl and cocaine, possessing firearms in a drug trafficking crime and possessing firearms as a felon.
Moffitt was arrested in the murder case after prosecutors said Hildenbrandt’s remains were found near an abandoned gravel pit in Searsburg in 2019. She had been missing for several months, according to court records. In 2020, the Vermont Chief Medical Examiner’s Office had initially identified that the remains belonged to Hildenbrandt.
However, when tests to confirm the identity of the remains were not completed by the start of a scheduled trial earlier this year, Bennington County State’s Attorney Erica Marthage’s office formally dismissed the charge.
Kevin Henry, Moffitt’s defense attorney, agreed Tuesday with Reiss that the homicide case should not be a factor in his client’s sentencing on the federal drug and gun charges. He said Moffitt deserved a right to defend himself against that charge in state court, if it were to ever be refiled.
Marthage did not return requests for comment on Tuesday.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Andrew Gilman, the prosecutor in the federal case, said during Tuesday’s sentencing hearing that the state prosecutor intended to refile the murder charge.
According to charging documents leading to the federal case, Moffitt attempted to flee from officers trying to arrest him in 2022, and a bystander saw him place a bag inside a trash container.
A search of the bag revealed 3,750 bags of suspected fentanyl, “distribution quantities” of crack and powder cocaine, and two loaded handguns, according to the documents.
Gilman urged the judge Tuesday to impose a lengthy prison sentence for Moffitt, citing in part his long criminal record that includes four prior felony convictions.
“While Moffitt had a challenging upbringing and has struggled with substance abuse, this background only offers context for his crimes and not an excuse,” Gilman wrote in a sentencing memo.
“Through multiple criminal justice interventions, Moffitt has had opportunities to turn around his life; he never has,” Gilman added. “Rather, he continued to commit crimes, arguably of greater severity.”
The prosecutor also wrote that while he was “not seeking to prove up” the murder case, Moffitt’s interactions with Hildenbrandt before her death were “highly concerning.”
“According to the statement Hildenbrandt provided law enforcement, Moffitt threatened her and made her fear for her life,” Gilman wrote in his sentencing filing.
“In addition, based on the facts in the (presentence investigation report), Moffitt appeared to have a significant motive to silence Hildenbrandt so that he would not go back to jail,” Gilman wrote. “In short, Moffitt’s past criminal actions and his history, including his involvement with Hildenbrandt, support a greater sentence.”
Henry, Moffitt’s attorney, asked the judge to hand down a much lesser prison term called for by the prosecutor.
“There is no dispute that the offense is serious and must be punished with a substantial term of incarceration,” Henry wrote in his sentencing memo. “By any measure, a term of 84 months will reflect the seriousness of the crime, promote respect for the law, serve as a general and specific deterrent, and protect the public.”
Henry wrote about the troubled childhood his client endured as his parents battled their own drug addictions leading to Moffitt spending time in the “abusive” care of others.
“At only 17, without a job, housing, money or any family and friends to turn to, Deven lived on the streets of Burlington and slept in an abandoned van,” Henry wrote. “Deven turned to stealing and robbing college kids so he could eat.”
According to Henry, Moffitt now understands that “only he can control his future” and he wants to live a law-abiding life once released from prison.
“Stated differently,” Henry wrote in the filing, “he knows that he can no longer be the angry young man who simply accepted the fact that at an early age that he was destined for the life he has lived to date.”
Moffitt addressed the judge during Tuesday’s hearing, telling her that he had worked to better himself while behind bars awaiting resolution of the federal case. He said he had taken classes to improve his education and understanding of the law.
Moffitt told Reiss he hoped to someday become a public defender so he could “help those falsely accused” of crimes.
Reiss, in handing down her sentence, said the amount of drugs seized from Moffitt when he was arrested was an aggravating factor.
“I’ve never seen that amount of fentanyl at trial,” the judge said, adding: “It’s just a tremendously destructive drug, and you had a ton of it.”
