BURLINGTON — A jury convicted a former Burlington man of two counts of murder in the fatal shootings of two men on the same night in neighboring towns more than three years ago.
Denroy Dasent’s defense team had argued that it was a case of mistaken identity, while the prosecutors said the evidence “unequivocally” pointed to Dasent as the killer.
Jurors deliberated more than four hours before returning the guilty verdicts against Dasent on two charges of second-degree murder. The charges stem from the fatal shootings on Oct. 2, 2022, of 40-year-old Sheiknoor Osman and 37-year-old Brian K. Billings II.
The jury’s verdict Monday followed a trial that stretched over five days in Chittenden County Superior criminal court in Burlington.
Chittenden County State’s Attorney Sarah George, whose office prosecuted the case, spoke to reporters outside the courtroom and thanked the jurors. She said of the verdict, “It came with an amount of time that showed the jury took it very seriously.”
George said the motive for the two killings remains unclear.
Dasent’s defense team declined to comment.
Dasent, who fidgeted in his chair at the defense table throughout the trial and at times clasped his hands in front of himself, did not appear to display any emotions as the jury foreperson announced the verdicts. Dasent did not testify in his own defense.
Many of Billings’ family and friends, who said Billings was known as “Little B,” attended each day of the trial. Several of them cried as the verdicts were read. It was not clear if Osman had family members in the courtroom.
Billings’ family members in a written statement after the verdict thanked the police investigators, the prosecutor team and the jury.
“Brian was a Dad first and foremost and his fiancé Kylie and his children were his whole world,” the statement read.
“These past three years have been the hardest of our lives,” the statement added. “Our ‘new normal’ is heartbreaking and hard to navigate and anything but normal. B was a good man with a huge heart, who loved everyone!! His smile came easy and his laughter contagious.”
Eyewitness testimony
The prosecutors during the trial highlighted eyewitness accounts as well as other evidence tying Dasent to the killings. That testimony included a firearms expert who connected shell casings recovered from both shooting scenes to a gun Dasent told investigators he had thrown into Lake Champlain moments before he was arrested.
Prosecutors presented little information about the connection, if any, between Dasent and the two victims. At the time of the shootings, Osman had been dating Billings’ sister.
Dasent’s defense attorneys contended throughout the trial that neither the evidence nor testimony clearly identified their client as the killer in either case.
Dasent, 55, has been jailed since his arrest shortly after the two deadly shootings. He had pleaded not guilty to the charges and remained in custody without bail pending his trial.
Tricia Guyette had testified on the trial’s first day that a man had forced his way into the Pine Street apartment where she had been with Osman on the night of the deadly attack a little after 8 p.m.
She told jurors Osman was in bed when the man entered the room. That man, armed with a Glock gun, repeatedly shot Osman, Guyette testified, adding that the shooter did not speak or display any emotions.
In a 911 call Guyette made after the shooting, a recording of which was played for jurors in court, the only description she provided of the shooter was that he was a Black man. She later told police she was aware the shooter was known to others as “Denny” and said he was a frequent visitor to the Pine Street residence, which was a place where people would use and buy drugs.
The second fatal shooting took place about three hours later, around 11 p.m., at the Swiss Host Motel in South Burlington. Kylie Clark, who lived there with Billings, testified during the trial that a person had come to the door that night seeking to speak to Billings and Billings went outside to talk to him.
Clark told jurors she heard gunshots moments later, and Billings came back into the apartment bleeding. He collapsed and died, she said.
Clark testified that she and Billings knew the person who had come to their door that night as “Delroy.” She said she knew that “Delroy” had lived at the Swiss Host Motel in the past and that he operated a restaurant in the food court of the University Mall in South Burlington. Denroy Dasent along with his wife had run the Island Passion restaurant at the mall.
Both Clark and Guyette identified Dasent as the shooter during their testimony, pointing to him at the defense table as he sat between his two attorneys.
Dasent’s statements
Prosecutors during the trial played police video of Dasent as he was taken into custody on Burlington’s waterfront shortly after the second killing. Police had pursued Dasent there after spotting a tan sport-utility vehicle he was driving that matched the description of the vehicle witnessed earlier that night near the scene of the Pine Street homicide.
In that video, Dasent said that he had “clapped” two people, a term that Burlington Police Lt. Michael Beliveau told jurors during his testimony meant he had killed them. Dasent could also be heard on the video stating, “I will kill for my kids.”
In another police video, Dasent could be heard repeatedly referring to Osman by his nickname, “Snake,” and he appeared to make disparaging remarks about both Billings and Osman. He also could be heard alleging inappropriate behavior from the two men.
At one point during the questioning from the investigators, Dasent was asked what offenses he should face and he described himself as a “vigilante.”
Chittenden County Deputy State’s Attorney Sally Adams, in her more than hourlong closing argument Monday, told jurors those allegations against the two men were “nonsensical.” She said there was no evidence to back up those claims from Dasent.
Defense attorney Daniel Maguire, in his much shorter closing remarks to the jury, said it was difficult to make too much about what his client told detectives after his arrest since it couldn’t be heard clearly and he appeared highly agitated.
Maguire told jurors that he didn’t believe that Dasent offered any “rational” motive for why he would want to carry out either of the fatal shootings.
Maguire also highlighted in closing argument the testimony of Keith Winters, who told jurors from the witness stand that he lived next door to Clark and Billings at the Swiss Host Motel at the time of the shooting there.
Winters testified that a person had come to his door shortly before the shooting asking who his neighbor was. Winters said he told the man that his neighbor was Brian Billings.
Next, Winters testified, he heard gunshots outside his residence and he called police.
Winters told jurors he could not say with any certainty that the man who came to his apartment that night was Dasent. He said the lighting was bad, making it difficult to see. Winters called the man “polite” and noted he did not have an accent. Dasent had a heavy Caribbean accent in recordings of his voice played by prosecutors in the trial.
Maguire also raised questions about inconsistencies in Guyette’s testimony, saying she testified that the shooter spoke with an accent but also testified that the shooter did not speak during the shooting at the Pine Street apartment.
During their deliberations Monday, the jurors listened to an audio playback of Guyette’s testimony and they rewatched two police videos in which Dasent provided statements.
Gun evidence
Prosecutors also presented video evidence of Dasent telling police that while he was at the waterfront prior to his arrest, he threw a gun into the lake. A state police dive team found a Glock gun two days after the shootings in the lake near where Dasent was taken into custody.
Harry Jeppe, a firearms examiner with the Vermont Forensic Laboratory, told jurors that his analysis of markings on the shell casings recovered from both fatal shooting scenes showed they were fired from that same Glock recovered from the lake.
The serial number of the weapon also matched a weapon Dasent’s wife, Suesan Dasent, testified during the trial that she had purchased in 2021 at a Chittenden County sporting goods store.
Suesan Dasent did not initially appear in court to testify. Police had to go and find her and take her into custody, bringing her to court to take the witness stand for the prosecution.
She testified that she kept the Glock gun in a locked case, and the key to the case was on the same ring as those for the tan Toyota 4Runner she owned with her husband. That was the same vehicle police found at the waterfront when they arrested Denroy Dasent.
Each murder charge against Dasent carries the possibility of life in prison. No sentencing date was immediately set.
