by Mike Donoghue, Vermont News First

A version of this story appeared this morning in the Caledonian-Record.

One of the three men behind a violent, dangerous drug dealing conspiracy in the Orleans County region was sentenced in U.S. District Court in Burlington on Tuesday to almost 13½ years in federal prison.

Dante “Pops” Flowers Sr., 48, was one of three Hartford, Conn. men who headed to the rural Northeast Kingdom in 2020 to set up one of the most vicious and prolific drug distribution conspiracies of fentanyl and crack cocaine in recent years in Vermont.

Chief Federal Judge Christina Reiss also ordered Flowers to pay $313,565 in restitution to James Castrogiovanni of Derby after a savage beating at his home left him paralyzed from the neck down, Reiss said.

Both Flowers Sr. and Jr. were initially with attempted murder cases after they entered the home of Castrogiovanni, 41, at the Derby Mobile Home Park on U.S. 5 and repeatedly stomped and kicked the victim on Oct 13, 2020, police said. It was sparked by a drug money dispute, officials said.

The brutal assault internally decapitated Castrogiovanni and left him a paraplegic, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said. Castrogiovanni remains paralyzed with little to no function of arms and no function of the lower part of his body, officials said.

Reiss ordered Flowers to serve 100 months in prison for conspiracy to distribute crack cocaine and fentanyl between January and November 2020. She also imposed a consecutive mandatory 60-month prison term for using and carrying a firearm while trafficking drugs in the fall of 2020.

The Vermont conspiracy was linked to at least two attempted homicides in Orleans County, including one that left Castrogiovanni a quadriplegic. The conspiracy also had several other serious assault cases where victims, especially women, were beaten, records show.

The other two major players in the Vermont drug conspiracy – Flowers’ son and a wanted killer – also received significant sentences earlier from Judge Reiss.

Dante “Fresh” Flowers Jr., 31, is serving nearly a 17-year sentence. He received 140 months for conspiracy to distribute fentanyl and crack cocaine and five years for using a firearm while trafficking drugs.

He also was ordered to make $313,365 in restitution to Castrogiovanni.

Jayquan “Jay” Flintroy, 30, also was sentenced to almost 13 ½ years in prison last month for similar felony drug and gun charges.

Flintroy is wanted in Hartford, Conn., for a charge of manslaughter in the decapitation death of a bicyclist about 8:30 p.m. Aug. 13, 2020, court records show. Flintroy reportedly struck Luis R. Rodriguez, 44, of New Britain, Conn. and then ran over him a second time while fleeing from another drug dealer, according to court records and comments during court proceedings.

Fresh Flowers was a front-seat passenger in the hit-and-run vehicle, records show. Pops Flowers helped his son and Flintroy clean blood and body parts off the car, Assistant U.S. Attorney Wendy Fuller said in court papers. Reconstruction of the accident estimated the White Audi was driving between 54 and 59 miles per hour when it struck the bicyclist, records show.

Hartford Police requested an arrest warrant for Flintroy also for charges of evading responsibility in a death, intimidating a witness and tampering with evidence, according to court records. Flintroy later told police the White Audi had been stolen at gunpoint from him, but police said his DNA was found in the car, records show.

Rodriguez, a father of three, was attending school to try to start a criminal justice career when killed, his obituary stated.

The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives investigation in Vermont in the drug and gun case corroborated evidence that Flintroy was the driver of the fatal hit-and-run crash, court records show. Three witnesses provided information, the ATF said.

A drug informant reported “Pops” Flowers Sr. was considered the biggest drug seller in Orleans and Caledonia Counties in 2020 and his son, “Fresh” Flowers Jr., was the second biggest, ATF Special Agent Tam Vieth said in court papers.

Flintroy was a business associate of the younger Flowers, officials said.

Pops Flowers apologized in court on Tuesday. He said he has been trying to change his life since he has been in prison.

Defense lawyer Robert S. Behrens agreed that his client is trying to turn his life around and accept responsibility for his actions.

Behrens asked that the sentence be served at a federal prison with a medical facility like at Devens, Mass.

“It was a violent conspiracy, everybody was armed,” Reiss said during the sentencing Tuesday.

Reiss noted Flintroy, during an argument with Pops Flowers, fired two shots at him outside the Wendy’s restaurant in Waterfront Plaza in Newport in November 2020. He was struck in the left leg and still has side effects from the bullet.

Flintroy then stole Flowers’ car and drove to a nearby home looking to steal his drug stash and money, records show.

As part of the plea deal with Flintroy, the government opted not to file the gun charge with a notation that it had been discharged. That would have made the mandatory minimum ten years, Fuller said.

Flintroy and both Flowers, father and son, all faced attempted murder charges in state court in connection with two incidents that eventually were rolled into the federal prosecution.

The two Flowers and Flintroy “all carried firearms and used violence to threaten and beat their customers and distributors into submission,” Fuller said in court papers.

“The conspiracy involved shocking levels of violence and highly dangerous acts,” she said.

It was unclear how soon Flintroy might face his state charges in Hartford, Conn. Reiss agreed to recommend the federal sentence be served in a facility near Gainsville, Fla. where Flintroy has a young son living.

A fourth defendant named in the Vermont indictment, Michael “Chappo” Alamo, 25, of Newport and Hartford, Conn., was sentenced in August 2022 to 40 months in federal prison. The sentence runs concurrent with any state time imposed. He will be on 3-years supervised release when freed from prison.

Assisting the ATF and the Vermont Drug Task Force were state and Newport City Police, the Orleans County Sheriff’s Department, U.S. Marshals Service and Homeland Security Investigations. Also both the U.S. Border Patrol and the U.S. Customs and Border Protection Air and Marine Division.