Suspect has 533 police interactions

by Mike Donoghue

HYDE PARK – A dangerous career criminal has pleaded not guilty in state court to a charge of second-degree murder in the brutal Lamoille County killing of his longtime friend – and frequent intimate partner – last month, court records show.

Theodore “Teddy” Farnham, 54, of Waterbury is being held without bail at the Northeast Correctional Complex in St. Johnsbury.  Court records also list a Woodbury address for Farnham.

Farnham is charged with the strangulation death of Richard Cote, 76, at his Morristown residence the night of July 23-24, Vermont Superior Court records show.  The home is attached to his auto repair shop and a bus/limo service. 

Morristown Police said they responded to the home and business at 813 Elmore Road the morning of July 24 for a welfare check when an employee, Kevin Mayo, arrived for work at 6:30 a.m. and could not enter the locked shop or locate Cote for about 90 minutes, which were both unusual.  He initially called the bookkeeper and the victim’s brother, who both agreed it was unusual for the owner to be out of touch.  They could not reach him and Mayo finally called police at 7:55 a.m.

Morristown Police Chief Jason Luneau and Officer Lance Lamb eventually had to use a crowbar to force entry into Cote’s upstairs residence and found him naked on his bedroom floor with multiple injuries to his face, neck and head at 9:02 a.m., police said.

The autopsy showed he died from asphyxia due to compression of the neck with possible smothering, according to Dr. Kathleen McCubbin, a deputy chief medical examiner.  She also reported she found blunt trauma to the head, neck, torso and extremities.   

“The amount of damage to Cote’s nobody is indicative of an emotionally charged assault.  The death of Cote was without question violent,” Detective Lt. Todd Baxter said in a court affidavit.  Red brown stains were located on the bed and the victim’s body, he said.

Farnham and Cote had lived together off and on over the past decade, Baxter said.  It said Farnham reported he had been involved with Cote for about 30 years.

Farnham told Chief Luneau “If Richard had it his way we’d be married,” the affidavit said.  Farnham said Cote kept pushing for a relationship, including as recently as 3 weeks earlier, Baxter wrote in the 43½ page affidavit. 

Farnham made clear he did not like the sexual advances, Baxter said.

“Not once in any of the interviews or conversations with Teddy did he say he enjoyed the intimate/relationship side of Cote.  Teddy spoke the opposite,” Baxter’s affidavit noted.

“Teddy did not like the constant advances of Cote and the constant ask for more.  Teddy’s frustration with Cote is clear,” Baxter said.

Family, friends and employees knew about the relationship and also that Farnham would steal from Cote, Baxter said.

Career criminal

It is unclear why Farnham was not behind bars as an ongoing habitual offender before the killing was reported.

Public records show that Farnham has had 533 incidents or contacts with law enforcement in Vermont in his life.

Police had arrested Farnham on 19 felony charges, and he was convicted on 11 of them, records show.  The records also show the following:  Farnham has faced 101 misdemeanor charges resulting in 67 convictions. His record also shows 17 crimes involved assaults, including 12 with convictions.

He has 24 cases of failure to appear for court, and another 25 violations of court orders, including 13 with convictions. 

The Vermont court system is well known for its ongoing inability to deal with many of these kinds of offenders that frequently repeat crimes and consistently ignore judicial orders.  Farnham is just another case.

When arrested on the Morristown homicide charge, Farnham was also wanted for an unrelated failure to appear for court in Lamoille County on two counts of petty larceny and two counts of unlawful trespass.  A judge had pre-set bail at $200 if Farnham was caught.

Farnham also is due in criminal court in Washington County Aug 22 following a complaint of two people using a ladder to attempt to break into a residence in Waterbury about 9:50 p.m. July 4, Vermont State Police said. They said Farnham was found inside the residence on U.S. 2 between the Waterbury Flea Market and Parro’s Gun Shop and Indoor Range.  He was cited for unlawful trespass, Trooper David Lambert said.

Morristown Police said Vermont State Police came across Farnham late Thursday afternoon again at the Waterbury site, which is a known drug house.  State police arrested Farnham on the warrant and then brought him to Morristown and turned him over to Baxter, police said.  Farnham was jailed pending his arraignment, police said.  Judge Daniel Richardson found probable cause overnight for the homicide case, records show. 

A video arraignment was conducted Friday afternoon by Judge Alison Arms, who was sitting in Franklin County, and with Farnham appearing by camera from the prison.

Arms agreed with a request by Lamoille County State’s Attorney Aliena Gerhard that Farnham be held without bail.

Arms also ordered Farnham to have no contact by phone, in writing, through social media or other communications with three witnesses: Edward Cote, the victim’s brother, and Kevin Mayo and Lisa Mandigo, two employees of the victim.

Public Defender Kurt Williams had argued there was not enough detail in the probable cause court affidavit to justify the charge against Farnham.

However, Gerhard said she had just received lab tests further linked Farnham through DNA to Cote.  Williams, a former Caledonia County prosecutor, subsequently withdrew the objection.

The investigation

As Morristown Police began to unravel the case, they checked for Cote’s cellphone, wallet, credit cards and money clip, Baxter said.

Investigation revealed that one credit card had been used in Hardwick about 9:18 a.m., about an hour after the body was discovered.  A cell phone trace also showed it was not at the crime scene, Baxter said.

Due to the fatal injuries, a missing red Ford truck that Cote used, the victim’s cell phone missing, and the recently used credit card, police decided to back away from the residence and summoned the help of the Vermont State Police Major Crime Squad and the State’s Crime Scene Search Team to process the site.

Baxter was a former supervisor on the Major Crime Squad when he retired from Vermont State Police.

Cote’s brother and some of the auto shop workers had repeatedly tried to call the victim, but got no responses.

Morristown Detective Chris Tetreault as part of the investigation learned Cote would hang out with Farnham and Joey Ewen.  Baxter said in his court affidavit that he knew  both are illicit drug users.

Farnham would eventually tell police that he went to see Cote to try to get money on the night of July 23 because he was broke at the end of the month, Baxter said in his court affidavit.  Farnham said he went there to get a few dollars by allowing Cote to perform a sex act on him,  Baxter said.  Farnham said he left after Cote paid him $20.  Farnham insisted Cote, who was gay, was alive when he left, court records show.

The evidence shows otherwise, Baxter said.

Farnham had arrived at Cote’s by bicycle, which police found at the scene.

Farnham took Cote’s cell phone, multiple credit cards and money, police said.  Evidence shows the cell phone had been at Cote’s residence from shortly after 9 p.m. July 23 until about 2 a.m. July 24 when it was discarded on a back road in Morristown.

The back road, would have been on the route Farnham reportedly took to drive to Maplefields in Waterbury about 2:30 a.m. July 24

By coincidence, Baxter happened to be at the Maplefields in Waterbury at the same time as part of an unrelated police investigation.  He said he saw Farnham operating a red Ford truck with no registration plates.

Baxter said he took a picture of the truck and asked the Lamoille County Sheriff’s Office to check for warrants and license for Farnham.  They reported no warrants and his driver’s license was suspended, Baxter said. 

He tried to get a Vermont state trooper in a marked police cruiser to intercept Farnham, but the closest one was tied up, Baxter said. 

Later in the day, Hardwick Police Chief Mike Henry spotted Farnham in a 2007 red Ford F-150 single-cab truck. 
Baxter and Chief Luneau began about a 50-minute  interview with Farnham about 12:10 p.m. July 24 in the driveway of his daughter, Asia Farnham.

He was in the same red truck, which now had a Vermont registration plate, but a check showed it was old and not in the files of the Vermont Department of Motor Vehicles, Baxter said.

The interview was designed to get a preliminary statement from Farnham that would be used to compare against the evidence as it was collected in the case.  Farnham maintained he had done nothing wrong, but drive while his license was suspended.  He claimed Cote was alive when he left the residence, Baxter said.

He said his travels that day were mostly to visit his children, who he had not seen.  Besides Asia, he said he saw his son Gabriel in Calais.  He said his son Riley doesn’t visit because of his mother, while his other son Ryan is up in Newport, records show. 

Farnham also tried to show that Cote was involved in other gay relationships, police said.  

“He has all kinds of (expletive) gay relationships,” Farnham said.  But when asked, by Baxter, who, Farnham said he didn’t know because Cote was a private person in his sex life.  “But trust me, there is lots of ’em.”

Farnham urged Baxter and Luneau to find Cote’s cell phone because “there is text messages from 50 different guys, guaranteed…” the affidavit said.

The investigation also showed that Farnham had gone on
a shopping spree with Cote’s credit cards by ringing up more than $1,200 in charges by 11:30 a.m. the day the body was found, Baxter said.

It included $273 at Champlain Farms on Williston Road near the Windjammer restaurant in South Burlington and $291 in a pair of purchases at Walmart in Williston.

By 9 a.m. he was in Hardwick ringing up almost $500 in charges between M&M Beverage, the Hardwick Kwik Stop, the Tops Market, Dollar General and again at M&M Beverage over 2 ½ hours, Baxter said.

As the investigation unfolded, Luneau and Baxter re-interviewed Farnham on July 26 at a picnic table in a Waterbury park near the train depot.  Farnham continued to report when he left Cote’s home on the night of July 23/24 that he was fine, Baxter said.

Farnham admitted he left Cote’s during the early morning hours and had taken a shower because he was dirty, Baxter said. 

Farnham, who said he was broke, noted when Cote arrived back home with the bus, he explained he was hoping to get some money, Baxter wrote.  

Cote reportedly asked Farnham if he wanted to “do something.”   They went inside and “did something, he gave me keys to the truck and I left,” Baxter quoted Farnham as stating.  The earlier statement explained the sex act, records show.

“You will find I did nothing wrong,” Farnham reportedly told Baxter, the court affidavit said.  

Meanwhile the investigation had been taking shape.

Police knew Cote had driven a busload of people for National Life night of July 23 from Montpelier to Stowe and back to the Capital City by about 9 p.m., Baxter said.  He was due back in Morristown about 9:45 p.m., which was about the time Farnham said he met him.

VSP Detective Sgt. James Vooris of the Major Crime Squad used Verizon records on July 24 to eventually trace Cote’s missing cell phone to the area of 1108 Elmore Mountain Road.  

Retired Stowe Police Sgt. Chris Rogers, using a metal detector, located the cell phone about 6 p.m. July 24 off the side of the road, Baxter said.  About an hour later, State Fish and Wildlife Warden Ethan Coffey found a car key and fob about two feet off the highway and hanging from some green vegetation, Baxter said.  The key was later matched to a Ford Aerostar van parked at Cote’s business, he said.

Judge Mary Morrissey approved a search warrant for the residence to allow police to go back in and collect evidence that could be used in a prosecution.   Cote’s body, some DNA evidence, blood, clothing, bedding, towels and medications were seized, Baxter wrote.  Video and still photographs also were taken of the scene.