Theodore “Theo” Bland, 30, most recently of Burlington had denied gun and drug charges earlier in U.S. District Court in the case.

However, death penalty charges were added last month after the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Vermont received the green light from the Justice Department in Washington, D.C. in October to make the prosecution a capital case.

Republican President Donald J. Trump, who took office on Jan. 20, signaled he wanted the death penalty brought back after former President Joe Biden, a Democrat, ordered a moratorium on federal executions during his time in the White House.  Biden eventually commuted the death sentences for nearly all the federal death row inmates as part of 4,245 pardons and clemency orders he issued before leaving office in January, according to the Office of the Pardon Attorney.

Bland denied eight federal charges on Thursday afternoon, including gunning down the two out-of-state drug dealers at a mobile home at 497 Eden Road in Lowell on Oct. 12, 2023.

The bodies of Jahim “Debo” Solomon, 21, of Pittsfield, Mass. and Eric “E” White, 21, of Chicopee, Mass. were found about two weeks later in the town of Eden in nearby Lamoille County about a mile apart.

Bland will remain in custody without bail pending his trial.  Bland, who has been held outside Vermont, was brought back earlier this week for the court hearing.  He is now detained at the Northwest State Correctional Facility in St. Albans Town.   

Federal Magistrate Judge Kevin J. Doyle agreed with a defense request to extend an earlier imposed deadline for pre-trial motions to Feb. 23.  Senior Federal Judge Williams K. Sessions III has set a status conference for that morning. 

Assistant U.S. Attorney Joshua Turner had said in open court in October that the Department of Justice in Washington, D.C. had given authorization to seek the death penalty and that a new indictment would be sought.  The new indictment was needed to cover the requirements that would allow for the death penalty, if Bland is convicted, he said.

The new indictment has five gun charges, including the two counts for fatally shooting the Massachusetts men.  Two counts maintain Bland was carrying guns while trafficking drugs between Sept. 7 and Oct. 15, 2023, the indictment said.

Bland also is charged with two counts of possession with intent to distribute crack cocaine and fentanyl on Oct. 12 and 14, 2023.  He also is charged with conspiring with Justin Douglass and others to distribute crack cocaine and fentanyl between Sept. 7 and Oct. 15, 2023. 

Douglass, who is known as “J.D.,” 37, of Hardwick, had pleaded not guilty to an earlier indictment for drug conspiracy. 

Vermont News First initially reported in December 2023 that Bland was the main person of interest in the double homicide.  The story, which appeared in multiple newspapers in Vermont and Massachusetts, was based on Vermont News First’s own investigation, interviews and court records.

The government eventually used that VNF news story as a court exhibit in requesting Bland be detained without bail.  

Turner in his notice for the death penalty, wrote that the government is prepared to show several intent factors justifying the death penalty.  They include Bland killed the victims on purpose and intentionally inflicted serious bodily injury that resulted in their deaths.

Turner also noted that among the aggravating factors is Bland’s criminal record for using a firearm in the past.

Bland comes from a well-known Stowe family, which includes his father, Richard Bland, a lawyer and a former member of the town school board.

The double homicide is part of a complex interstate drug trafficking ring.  At least eight people have been charged in U.S. District Court as part of the case investigated by the Vermont Drug Task Force, State and Morristown Police, and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.  Other less involved people have been charged in state court.

Vermont received approval for two federal death penalty cases from U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi and the Justice Department in just 2½ months.

In the other case, Teresa C. Youngblut, 21, of Seattle, Wash. is charged with fatally shooting an on-duty U.S. Border Patrol Agent about 3:15 p.m. Jan. 20 also in the Northeast Kingdom.  Youngblut is a member of a radical cult group, officials said. 

They maintain Youngblut, without notice or provocation, opened fire, killing Border Patrol Agent David “Chris” Maland of Newport.  The veteran agent, who never got a shot off, was struck in the neck with one of two shots.  He had ordered a 2015 Toyota Prius that was registered in North Carolina to pull over for an immigration stop about nine miles south of the Canadian border on Interstate 91 in Coventry.