by Michael Bielawski
A family member of a murder victim is expressing frustration that Vermont State Attorney Sarah George is allowing Gregory FitzGerald, the convicted murderer of his sister, to go free after he received life without parole decades ago.
FitzGerald was convicted of killing his wife Amy FitzGerald by strangulation in 1993. He was sentenced to life without parole the following year for fiirst-degree murder. He is currently slated to be freed into transitional housing once it becomes available via the Pathways to Housing program.
In 1993 Amy FitzGerald’s body was discovered in a condo in Shelburne. She was studying for a master’s degree at the University of Vermont and she was a captain in the U.S. Military.
Her brother speaks with VDC
Her brother, Alan Zeltserman, spoke with VDC on Monday evening, which was Tuesday morning for Zeltserman as he is retired and living in rural Japan.
“Imagine thirty years ago, this horrible, horrible thing happened,” Zeltserman said. “My sister was murdered, and we thought we had closure. We thought that this state, Vermont, had done justice for my sister.”
He said that Goerge’s actions have been devastating.
“For Sarah George to go ahead and undo the justice that was done for our family, they talk about being revictimized, I think I was doubly victimized,” he said.
The killer had a record
During the aftermath of the murder, at first, the family did not consider the husband to be a suspect. Eventually, investigators advised Zeltserman that Gregory FitzGerald may have intended to kill him as well.
It turned out that FitzGerald was known to authorities for numerous incidents prior to the murder, including threatening people with a gun.
“He has a criminal record and a trooper said that he was glad to see FitzGerald out of Massachusetts because he was really bad news. All of this was news to us,” Zeltserman said.
A questionable case for his freedom
Zeltserman is a retired appellate attorney, he has familiarity with criminal and public defense matters.
He said the main arguments by Fitzgerald regarding his appeal included that he claims that the plea deal including life without parole was never adequately shared with him. Zeltserman said that the Vermont Supreme Court’s findings refute this notion.
“He got that, the Vermont Supreme Court adopted those findings,” he said.
The second argument is that he was not aware that first-degree murder was an offense punishable by life without parole.
Zeltserman questions the message that these actions by George send to the public.
“When you give the message, ‘Oh I really feel sorry for this guy convicted of first-degree murder and I’m going to let him out.’ What kind of message does that give?” he said.
A second murder
Complicating the case against FitzGerald in 1994 was another murder. According to Zeltserman, FitzGerald initially tried to hire an associate Richard Rodriguez to do his sister’s murder. Rodriguez refused but he agreed to be FitzGerald’s driver for him to carry out the murder.
Rodriguez subsequently became a state witness in the case and was set to testify against FitzGerald, but he was then murdered by his girlfriend just two weeks before the trial. FitzGerald was suspected of being involved but no formal connections were ever made by investigators.
Contradicting statements by Sarah George
Zeltserman suggested politics could be at play regarding George’s actions. A bill proposed by Sen. Kesha Ram Hinsdale, D-Chittenden, introduced in 2021 at the Statehouse calls for doing away with all life without parole sentences.
Zeltserman says that George has made conflicting statements to various media regarding whether her personal views on this issue impacted her handling of this case. She told Seven Days in January of 2022, “I certainly wouldn’t say, ‘No, it didn’t play any part,'” George said. “It’s part of who I am and what I stand for.”
The next day to VtDigger her statements seemed to change. “I would never make it on such a serious case just to fit some agenda,” she said.
That’s not the only misconception Zeltserman says appeared in the media. That same month it had been reported in the Boston Globe that George had kept his family in the loop regarding Fitzgerald’s latest deal.
He said those were false statements. In fact, his family was only notified about the hearing for the deal 24 hours in advance, leaving the family little time to prepare statements or contact the media.
Zeltserman offered these comments to those who voted George into office.
“If a member of your family suffered a terrible, terrible event, God forbid, would you really want Sarah George and her office in charge of that prosecution?”
George has been under much public scrutiny during her time in office. Another high-profile incident involved her attempting to drop charges of murder and attempted murder on the grounds that the perpetrators were insane, a decision that was later rebuked by then State Attorney General TJ Donovan.
The author is a reporter for the Vermont Daily Chronicle