Bennington man has suspected Bloods gang ties, eight convictions in VT, four in NY

By Mike Donoghue, Vermont News First

Three dangerous suspects – including two linked by Bennington authorities to a disturbing plastic bag attack over the head of a local woman – have been indicted by a federal grand jury on unrelated charges of conspiracy to distribute fentanyl and crack cocaine.

William D. McLaughin Jr., 45, of Bennington, Samatha Danforth, 34, of Pownal and Keahnard “Stacks” Rowell, 34, of Bennington and New York City were part of a conspiracy distributing the two drugs in Vermont and elsewhere between Feb. 17, 2022 and July 1, 2022, the federal indictment said.

McLaughlin, who is suspected of having ties to The Bloods street gang, also was indicted on a charge of possession of a Taurus 9-mm pistol on May 3, 2022 while being a convicted felon, records show.

If McLaughlin is convicted on the firearms charge, prosecutors have asked in the indictment for the gun and any ammunition to be forfeited to the government.

The federal indictment does not list McLaughlin’s felony convictions, but he has been charged as a habitual offender in Vermont Superior Court in Bennington. 

McLaughlin has eight felony convictions in Vermont and four in New York, according to a sworn affidavit by Bennington Police in state court. 

The Vermont felony convictions include larceny from a person, sale of drugs to a minor near a school, unlawful trespass into an occupied residence, three counts of sale of cocaine and two counts of drug conspiracy, it said.  McLaughlin also has four violations of probation, the affidavit said.   

A career criminal is eligible for a habitual offender charge in Vermont – which allows a judge to impose a life sentence in prison – after three or more felony convictions in Vermont.

All three defendants are in custody for various state and/or federal charges.

No arraignment date has been set.

The criminal indictment stems from the latest ongoing investigations by U.S. Homeland Security Investigations and the uniform and detective divisions at Bennington Police into serious drug and gun cases in Southwestern Vermont. 

The grand jury filed the two-count indictment in U.S. District Court in Burlington late Thursday afternoon.

McLaughlin was considered a “major drug supplier in Bennington County” in 2013 when he was among 63 people arrested locally as part of “Operation County Strike,” according to the Bennington Banner at the time.  The state charged McLaughlin with 15 felony drug sale or possession charges, along with 6 misdemeanor counts, records show. 

McLaughlin, who was from Troy, N.Y. at the time, was eventually sentenced to seven years in prison.  He was later charged in April 2020 with being a habitual offender as part of an aggravated assault with a weapon case, records show.

A judge imposed a suspended 5-to-10-year prison term and placed McLaughlin on probation after he reported he was prepared to turn his life around and to work with youth to keep them out of trouble, the Bennington Banner reported.  He also said he wanted to focus on his daughter.

“That’s awesome,” Judge Cortland Corsones, who apparently was swayed by the story enough to impose a light sentence in February 2022, the Banner reported.

Corsones said he thought allowing McLaughlin to serve the rest of his sentence in the community and not behind bars was appropriate based on the defendant’s statements in court. 

Less than four months later the career criminal was back to his old tricks when he was charged with a residential break-in on Morgan Street and subsequent brutal stabbing of a local man, records show.  

McLaughlin is facing a litany of charges, including aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and burglary into an occupied dwelling while armed with a dangerous or deadly weapon – crimes that both carry possible life sentences, the Banner reported June 3, 2022.

McLaughlin and Danforth also were charged in a bizarre case involving 13 digital photographs of them as part of an attack on a local woman, then age 22, shown being held with a closed plastic trash bag over her head and her wrists bound at a South Street apartment in Bennington on May 3, 2022, records show.

Danforth recently reached a plea agreement on a variety of her criminal charges that included the dismissal of counts involving the attempted suffocation with the plastic trash bag case.

She was sentenced to two months to three years in prison after pleading guilty to burglary into an occupied building, possession of heroin, sale of cocaine and eluding police, records show.  

Danforth also saw the state drop 11 other criminal charges, including being an accessory to aggravated assault in the plastic bag case as part of the plea agreement.

McLaughlin is shown holding the woman with the plastic bag over her head as Danforth is behind her and is smiling and sticking her tongue out in some of the posed photographs, records show.  The woman, who did survive,  appears to be struggling. 

South Burlington Police Sgt. Mike DeFiore, a former Vermont drug task force detective, extracted the 13 pictures from McLaughlin’s cellphone as part of a separate criminal investigation, a court affidavit said.  Judge Kerry McDonald-Cady had found probable cause to search the phone.

Danforth also is wanted in New York City on a charge of attempted murder following the shooting of a man in the chest, while she was on the run from authorities in Bennington County, court records show.

She is eligible for parole in Vermont now, but will not be going far because both the U.S. Marshals Service and New York authorities reportedly have filed detainers saying they are next in line to deal with Danforth.  Her state sentences maxs out Dec. 18, 2025, state prison records show. 

U.S. Homeland Security Investigations arrested Rowell on a charge of illegal intentional possession of ammunition on Jan. 25, in Bennington, federal court records show.

Bennington Police Officer Robert Murawski conducted a traffic stop of a black 2001 Chevrolet Suburban that was traveling eastbound on Vermont 279 at 70 miles per hour in a 55-mph zone about 12:30 p.m. Jan. 25, court records show.

Murawski was talking with the driver during the traffic stop when he realized the passenger was the same man he had come across at an apartment at 308 Pleasant Street in Bennington on Jan. 12 as part of a criminal investigation into a stolen Smith & Wesson .40-caliber pistol.

Murawski reported he remembered the man verbally claimed to be “Desmond Thomas” and a witness reported he was a drug supplier and had been allowed to live at the apartment in exchange for drugs, HSI said in a court affidavit.

Murawski said he later learned that HSI had been investigating Rowell since 2022.

The Bennington driver was arrested on a charge of possession of cocaine for drugs found in the car, records show.  Rowell was allowed to leave as the investigation continued. 

Murawski seized the vehicle and later obtained a search warrant that helped net a loaded black Taurus .45-caliber handgun along with four different kinds of .45-caliber ammunition, HSI reported.

The driver said the gun and 66 bullets found in the car were not his and were not in the car when he got outside to talk to police for 12 minutes during the traffic stop.

Rowell had been left alone in the car, police said.  The gun was found behind the driver’s seat and contained two hollow point rounds and five full metal jacket ammunition, HSI said.  Two boxes of mixed ammo also were found.  The cocaine was found in the center console, police said.

Rowell is prohibited from possessing any firearms or ammunition under federal law because he is a convicted felon, HSI said. Rowell had felony convictions for criminal possession of controlled substances in both July 2013 and August 2022 in New York County in New York, HSI noted in court papers. 

HSI reported the Manhattan assistant district attorney, who prosecuted the August 2022 case, recently reported Rowell was informed when he entered his guilty plea that he could be imprisoned for up to 8 years.

U.S. Magistrate Judge Kevin J. Doyle initially released Rowell on strict conditions from federal court in Burlington after his initial appearance in Burlington in February.

Doyle ordered Rowell returned to jail during a court hearing May 31 after finding he violated conditions of release by using cocaine and marijuana while on home detention.  Doyle also ruled there was a presumptive positive test just before the hearing that showed he had cocaine in his system, court records note.

Doyle ruled there were no known conditions that could reasonably assure the safety of the community.

His defense lawyer has filed a motion to contest the search warrant and a hearing is planned for September.