by Mike Donoghue
BURLINGTON – Four people, including a pair of Bennington residents have been charged as part of a 3-count federal drug trafficking and gun indictment, court records show.
Shavonne Doucette, 36 and Kyle Winnie, 41, both of Bennington pleaded not guilty in U.S. District Court in Burlington to two felony counts on Monday afternoon.
They are charged with making their apartment at 215 Depot Street available for the unlawful manufacturing, storing, distributing and using of fentanyl and cocaine between August and November 2022, records show.
They also denied a felony charge that they knowingly conspired with two Springfield, Mass.-area men to distribute both fentanyl and cocaine between August and November 2022.
Javon “Juju” Calderon of Holyoke, Mass. and Christopher “Mula” Morgan of Chicopee, Mass. will be arraigned later this month. They had been charged earlier in Vermont for drug charges, records show.
The Massachusetts men are charged with being part of the same conspiracy count filed against the Bennington couple and also a second charge for brandishing firearms while trafficking fentanyl and cocaine in September 2022, the indictment said.
During separate arraignments, Chief Federal Judge Geoffrey W. Crawford ordered both Doucette and Winnie held pending further proceedings.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Corinne Smith asked for detention of Doucette and Winnie on the grounds that when they were arrested in Bennington on Friday that both were addicts and/or regular users of controlled substances, including opioids.
Smith said they could be considered at some point for pre-trial release if there was a strict structured release plan that included residential treatment.
A federal grand jury sitting in Rutland indicted the four defendants last Wednesday.
If convicted, each defendant faces up to 20 years in prison and up to a $1 million fine on the conspiracy count. For brandishing a firearm in connection with the drug trafficking, Calderon and Morgan face a mandatory minimum of 7 years in prison.
U.S. Attorney Nikolas “Kolo” Kerest cited the collaborative investigative efforts of Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), the HSI Special Response Team, Vermont State Police, Bennington Police, Bennington County Sheriff’s Department, Rutland City Police and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives.