Mugshot photo (left), Facebook photo of Mbyayenge “Robbie” Mafuta, charged Tuesday with the second-degree murder of Jeffrey Hall.
by Guy Page
A South Burlington man has been charged with second-degree murder in connection with a jailhouse killing Dec. 22, 2022.
The Vermont State Police has received the final autopsy report from the Chief Medical Examiner’s Office in Burlington regarding the March 10, 2023, death of Jeffrey Hall, 55. The medical examiner determined the cause of death was complications of blunt force trauma of the head, and the manner of death was a homicide.
The Vermont State Police on Tuesday, Aug. 8 cited Mbyayenge”Robbie” Mafuta of South Burlington on a charge of second-degree murder. Mafuta, 22, who remains incarcerated without bail, was ordered to appear for arraignment on the murder charge at 1:30 p.m. Tuesday, Aug. 22 in the Criminal Division of Vermont Superior Court in St. Albans.
Department of Corrections told state police that at about 2 pm Thursday, Dec. 22, an altercation between Hall and Mafuta, who was then 21, was believed to have occurred in a cell at Northwest State Correctional Facility in Swanton. Hall, who has no fixed address, suffered serious injuries and was transported to the hospital for treatment. He died of his injuries in March. Mafuta was uninjured.
According to a Rutland Herald news story by crime reporter Mike Donoghue, the two were cellmates. Hall was being held for operating without owner’s consent, supplying false information to police and petty larceny in Burlington. No known weapon was involved in the assault.
Mafuta in 2021 was arrested on charges of unlawful restraint, aggravated operation without the owner’s consent, grand larceny, larceny from a person, petit larceny and interference with emergency services, in connection with a carjacking at an Olive Garden in South Burlington. In August, 2022, he was arrested for allegedly breaking 33 residential windows in a morning crime spree.
Mafuta played lacrosse as a Burlington High School student. Although his Facebook profile claims he attended college at Transylvania University in Lexington, KY, TU officials say he did not. He is a native of Kinshasa, Congo.