A ‘person of interest’ in the December 1 shooting death of David Peatman, 66 at his home in Eden has since failed to show for two St. Johnsbury court appearances, the Caledonian-Record newspaper reported today.
Shawn Allen Rich, 44, of St. Johnsbury was picked up by police on three active warrants, including cocaine possession, just hours after the shooting, the news report says. He was charged with resisting arrest.
The Caledonia County state’s attorney asked that he be held, but instead Judge Justin Jiron released him on $300 bail – which he paid, and has since missed two scheduled court appearances.
Rich reportedly has a history of hiding from the law, In 2019, he hid from a police search in a covert compartment in a St. Johnsbury home that reputedly was once a stop on the Underground Railroad for fugitive slaves. Police eventually found him there.
On Thursday Dec. 1 at about 10:20 p.m., police received a report of shots fired at a home on Griggs Road. Responding troopers found Peatman dead with a gunshot to the chest in an apparent homicide.
Preliminary investigation indicates the parties involved fled the location following the shooting. No one is in custody at this time. The incident appears to be targeted.
Categories: Crime
You mean he was supposed to go back to court???? Thought that was what the catch and release program was meant to be.
Laughable. To the entire world, including third world nations, the USA is the laughingstock.
Prosecutors who won’t prosecute, a wide-open border that defies federal law as well as the intrinsic rights of any sovereign nation, drug use and addiction are rampant & enabled by foreign cartels, a fringe electorate along with their elected who do not believe in incarceration, etc. etc.
Well, “judges” – those who you believe should have been given a “second chance” indeed now have that second chance to murder again!
GREAT JOB, JUSTICE JIRON!!!!!!!!!!!! Hooray for leftist liberal lunacy! Again!
To add a bit of context to the lunacy of this judge’s rulings, from yesterday’s Caledonian Record: “State’s Attorney Zaleski said Rich has a criminal record that includes nine failures to appear in court, six convictions for violating court orders, 11 felony convictions, 37 misdemeanor convictions, four assaulting crime convictions, 29 parole violations, and 11 violations of probation.” In addition, Rich has over 20 open criminal cases in Caledonia County.
It seems to me that this Judge Jiron is more of a threat to the community than any single offender he releases back onto the street.
And our esteemed, gun control fanatic Senator Baruth is going after law abiding firearms owners. If he put a little effort into VT criminal justice reform, support for improved corrections and mandatory sentences for repeat offenders he would solve much of the problem. Right there, in his city and county, repeat felons are roaming the streets with illegal guns selling poison as in fentanyl the death drug for many who overdose on it.
And another problem is this governor bringing third world illegals into Vermont in a show of diversity. Some of the same illegals who are joining gangs and calling themselves The new Americans. There’s an old saying that goes, you can take the savage out of the jungle, but you can’t take the jungle out of the savage. The progressives running Vermont are our problem. They live for an agenda that is totally against solving the problems they create. This is what most of you just voted for.
Shawn rich should me in Vermont state prison for 20 years without any work orders. He will end up being killed in the line of duty
The judge should step down from his job