by Mike Donoghue, Vermont News First

Published May 2 in The Other Paper

A former Monkton man has been sentenced to 18 years to life in prison for conspiracy to commit first-degree murder in the fatal shooting of his stepfather in Hinesburg in 2019.

Kory Lee George, 36, and his mother Angela M. Auclair, 52, formerly of Williston, have been implicated in orchestrating the nighttime ambush killing of David Auclair, 45, of Williston almost five years ago.

They were both headed to trial when George entered a last-minute plea agreement in September 2023 that required him to enter a guilty plea and promise to testify against his mother.

David Auclair was shot 11 times, and no shell casings were left behind from the shooting, Vermont State Police said.

He was the son of a well-known South Burlington family that operated a large farm on Vermont 116 near the Shelburne line.

George said at his change of plea hearing that his mother was the person who fired all the shots into her estranged husband. It marked the first time she had been identified in public as the shooter.

Initial reports said Auclair was home when her husband was gunned down.

George and his mother were initially scheduled for a rare joint homicide trial in Vermont starting last October. Up to five weeks had been set aside for the trial.

David Auclair tried to crawl under his 2017 GMC pickup truck to get away from the shooting by his wife, deputy state’s attorney Susan G. Hardin said in court when George pleaded guilty last fall.

The bullet-riddled body of the victim was found July 11, 2019, at the LaPlatte Headwaters Town Forest trailhead parking lot off Gilman Road in Hinesburg. The victim was lured to the scene for his execution through a pre-paid burner cellphone that was traced to a Milton store where George bought it, state police said.

Auclair later pleaded guilty to accessory to first degree murder in January. She was scheduled to get the same sentence of 18 years to life as her son, but in April she petitioned a judge to allow her to withdraw her guilty plea. She also wants to fire her lawyer.

Judge Kevin Griffin had initially said he would try to schedule the sentencings for George and his mother on the same day so family members of the victim would need to travel only once from out-of-state for the hearings.

That plan fell through when Auclair pulled the plug on her plea deal.

“It’s about as bad as it gets,” Griffin told George on Monday about the execution-style murder of a family member.

George, a five-time felon, also was convicted separately in federal court for illegal possession of a firearm in connection with the homicide.

During the investigation, Vermont State Police detectives said they determined George was in illegal possession of two firearms — the stolen 9-mm Beretta used in the homicide and a stolen 12-gauge shotgun, records show.

George pleaded guilty in federal court to possessing the stolen shotgun at his Monkton home where he was living in August 2019. It had been stolen with several other firearms from a camp in St. Lawrence County in upstate New York that April, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives reported. Evidence indicated George rented a truck before heading to the New York camp for a burglary.

Federal Judge Christina Reiss sentenced George to 89 months in federal prison on the gun count in November 2021. As part of the plea agreement, he is serving his federal sentence in a Vermont prison, and it is likely to run concurrently with his state time.

A nearby doorbell camera at a Hinesburg home captured the sound of 14 shots. George’s defense lawyer Daniel M. Sedon said evidence showed only one gun was used at the scene.

The homicide investigation pointed to George as the apparent shooter after he stole firearms from a Colchester home of James Synott the night before the shooting. George broke into the unattended home on Arbor Lane while his mother fulfilled plans to meet the homeowner and David Auclair for dinner at the Lighthouse restaurant in Colchester. Synott was a mutual friend.

The Auclairs were in a rocky marriage, and police said Angela Auclair had a romantic interest in another man who would visit their home on Vermont 116 in Williston.

That man drove George to Colchester for the home burglary to steal guns, state police said.