BURLINGTON — A federal prosecutor told a judge Thursday that he would pursue the death penalty against a former Stowe man charged in the 2023 fatal shooting of two Massachusetts men in Vermont.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Jason Turner, one of the prosecutors in the case, said during the brief hearing in federal court in Burlington that U.S. Attorney General Pamela Bondi had “authorized” the pursuit of capital punishment for Theordore Bland, if convicted, in the double-homicide case.
Federal prosecutors had said at the last hearing in the case in September that they were still awaiting that approval from Bondi.
Turner told Judge William K. Sessions III during Thursday’s hearing that now, having gained that approval, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for Vermont would proceed with seeking a new indictment from a grand jury laying out the factors that support the death penalty in the case.
If the grand jury returns that indictment, Turner said, his office would file formal notice with the court seeking Bland’s execution, if convicted of the capital offenses.
Bland, 30, has already been indicted on drug and firearms charges. Specifically, the indictment charges him with using and carrying “a firearm in relation to a drug trafficking crime causing the deaths of Jahim Solomon and Eric White in circumstances that constitute murder under federal law.”
Turner’s announcement in court Thursday regarding the death penalty comes two years after authorities found the bodies of Solomon, 21, of Pittsfield, Massachusetts, and White, 21, of Chicopee, Massachusetts on Oct. 25, 2023. Searchers found the bodies in a wooded area of Eden, about a mile apart from each other.
Both men had been fatally shot, according to state police. Authorities had been searching for them for several days after their families had reported them missing and they were last known to be in Vermont.
Prosecutors in Bland’s federal case stated in court filings that the killings occurred Oct. 12, 2023, when “Bland’s firearm discharges caused the deaths” of both men.
Bland’s legal team includes three lawyers, with attorney Bruce Koffsky taking the leading role during Thursday’s hearing. He told the judge that they were still working to determine if the same attorneys would be representing Bland as the case proceeds.
Koffsky declined comment following the hearing.
Bland attended the hearing Thursday by video from a federal prison outside of Vermont. He did not appear to show any emotion when the federal prosecutor said Bondi had authorized the pursuit of the death penalty in his case.
A co-defendant in Bland’s case, Dilan Jiron, has already entered into a plea deal with prosecutors.
Jiron pleaded guilty to charges of conspiracy to possess a firearm in a drug trafficking crime and helping Bland cover up the fatal shootings. Jiron, formerly of Hyde Park, faces up to 23 years in prison when he is scheduled to be sentenced in April.
Bondi has already approved pursuing the death penalty in another case brought in federal court in Vermont against 21-year-old Teresa Youngblut, formerly of Washington state. Youngblut has been accused of fatally shooting David Maland, a border patrol agent, in January during a traffic stop on Interstate 91 in Coventry.
Youngblut has pleaded not guilty to the charges against her, including one for murder in Maland’s death. Youngblut has been tied to the Zizians, a loosely connected group whose members have been linked to several other homicides across the country.
The last execution in Vermont was carried out in 1954. The state does not have a death penalty statute. Bland’s case was brought under federal law, which does permit the death penalty as a punishment for certain offenses.
Former President Joseph Biden had imposed a moratorium on seeking the federal death penalty. However, President Donald Trump lifted that moratorium in January through an executive order.
