by Mike Donoghue, Vermont News First

A version of this story appeared in the Caledonian Record newspaper in St. Johnsbury.

BURLINGTON – A wanted killer, who came from Hartford, Conn. to the Northeast Kingdom to set up a major drug trafficking business four years ago, has been sentenced in U.S. District Court to almost 13 ½ years in prison for drug and gun charges.

Jayquan “Jay” Flintroy, 30, was part of one of the most dangerous and prolific drug distribution conspiracies in recent years in Vermont, according to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

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

Chief Federal Judge Christina Reiss ordered Flintroy to serve 100 months in prison for conspiracy to distribute fentanyl and crack cocaine in the Orleans County region between January 2020 and January 2021.

Reiss also imposed a consecutive mandatory 60-month prison term for using and carrying a firearm while trafficking drugs in the fall of 2020.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Wendy Fuller had asked during the Friday afternoon hearing for a 220-month prison term due to the “shocking” serious nature of the case. She said the penalty needed to be near the top end of the federal sentencing guidelines.

Defense lawyer Robert Sussman proposed a 120-month sentence.

Reiss just about split the difference.

The federal sentencing guidelines had recommended a total term between 190 and 222 months, including the mandatory 60-month gun sentence.

As part of the plea deal, the government opted not to file the gun charge with a notation that it had been discharged. That would have made the mandatory minimum 10 years, Fuller said.

Also in the Vermont drug distribution conspiracy were Dante “Pops” Flowers Sr., 48, and his son Dante “Fresh” Flowers Jr., 31, both of Hartford, Conn., according to the ATF and the Vermont Drug Task Force.

A drug informant reported “Pops” Flowers was considered the biggest drug seller in Orleans and Caledonia Counties at the time 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.

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.

Fuller said Flintroy shot “Pops” Flowers Sr. in the left leg during an argument in a car parked at the Wendy’s restaurant in Waterfront Plaza in Newport City in November 2020. Flintroy then stole Flowers’ car and drove to a nearby home looking to steal his drug stash and money, she said.

“Pops” Flowers took the witness stand on Friday afternoon to confirm statements he said to police and rescue personnel right after the shooting that Flintroy was the shooter. He also made that claim at a Newport hospital. His testimony came during the nearly four-hour hearing that ran past normal closing hours for court.

Sussman, the defense lawyer, reminded the wounded man he also claimed – after being transferred to a Burlington hospital – that his own son was involved in the shooting. Flowers Sr. maintained he made the comment because he was mad at his son.

Both Flowers Sr. and Jr., were charged in an unrelated attempted murder case after they tried to kill a Derby man in his trailer over a drug money dispute on October 13, 2020, officials said.

The Flowers entered the home of James Castrogiovanni, 41, at the Derby Mobile Home Park on U.S. 5 and repeatedly stomped and kicked the victim, police 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.

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.

Flintroy fled police in Orleans County in a tan Audi at speeds topping 100 miles per hour before he crashed into another vehicle about 8:45 p.m. Oct. 23, 2020, Fuller said.

The second driver, a 19-year-old woman was lucky she was not seriously injured, Fuller said. The chase started on Vermont 105 in Newport, went through Newport Center, into Troy and North Troy and back to Newport, police said. Officers discontinued the chase when it got into a populated area, but Flintroy managed to hit some spike strips, and his car crashed.

Flintroy still faces an unrelated manslaughter charge in Hartford, Conn. after he reportedly decapitated a local bicyclist as part of a hit-and-run car crash, court records and officials said. Flintroy was trying to avoid a rival drug dealer during a shootout four years ago, they said.

They maintain that after his car struck Luis Daniel Rodriguez, then 44, Flintroy backed up and hit him a second time before fleeing the scene on Weathersfield Avenue near Shultes Place in August 2020. Within an hour the damaged car was found abandoned around Upper Magnolia Street, police said. One report said it had been hit by at least one bullet.

His then-girlfriend Nicole Blanchard of Newport reported she was a passenger in the deadly car and Fuller said she has provided grand jury testimony with specific details about the crash and the shots that were fired.

Witnesses in Hartford reported two northbound cars were seen traveling together for several blocks, weaving in and out of traffic at a high rate of speed, police said.

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

Reiss told Flintroy she would not sentence him for or consider the Connecticut homicide charge. She did tell him that once he is discharged from prison in the Vermont case, he will be under federal supervised release for three years.

Flintroy will get credit for about 3 ½ years in prison while his federal case was pending. Reiss agreed to a request from Sussman, the defense lawyer, that the sentence be served in a federal facility near Gainsville, Fla. where Flintroy has a young son living. Reiss also imposed $200 in court costs, but waived a fine.

Reiss agreed to recommend that his federal sentence run at the same time as any time he might receive for the Connecticut decapitation case.

Flintroy first came to Vermont in 2019 while there was an arrest warrant for him in Connecticut and began to sell powder cocaine, Fuller said. Flintroy was arrested on the Connecticut probation warrant and sentenced to 6 months in prison.

He came back to Vermont in 2020 to resume his drug trafficking and stayed with Blanchard, who he used as a distributor for heroin and crack cocaine, Fuller said.

Blanchard reported Flintroy was “crazy” and “very violent.” She gave examples of him hitting her in the head with a gun, dragging her and putting a loaded gun to her head, Fuller wrote in court papers. Those incidents centered on drugs: Blanchard, an addict, either used too much product, did not sell enough drugs, or screwed up the money selling Flintroy’s drugs, Fuller said.

Kimberly Lindner’s son, Drew, was fresh out of prison and addicted to drugs, so he brought both Flowers to stay at his family’s home in Newport, records show. The drug sales out of the Lindner home were so extensive that customers were lined up in the driveway, Fuller said.

Blanchard reported either she or Ryan Skalak would accompany “Pops” Flowers to Hartford, Conn. to get a new drug supply, Fuller noted in court papers. Flintroy would pressure Skalak to buy guns for him, including multiple times to obtain an AR-15, records show.

Flowers, the father, testified he is still awaiting sentencing in Burlington.

The younger Flowers was sentenced last October to almost 17 years in prison for his part in setting up the violent conspiracy and for using guns to aid in his illegal work.

A fourth defendant named in the same 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.

“Fresh” Flowers Jr., and his co-conspirators carried firearms and used violence to threaten and control drug customers and others during the conspiracy to distribute crack cocaine and fentanyl during 2020, the ATF and Vermont Drug Task Force maintained.

Reiss told the younger Flowers last fall that he will be on federal supervised release for three years after he completes his 200-month sentence.

Defense lawyer Mark D. Oettinger had argued for a 10-year prison sentence — the minimum agreed to in the plea deal. The maximum under the deal was 20½ years.

He noted Flowers had studied Early Childhood Education at Slippery Rock University, but withdrew with a small number of credits remaining so he could help care for his ailing grandmothers.

Oettinger submitted a letter of support from a childhood friend who went on to become a police officer in New Haven, Conn. Rafael Mendez Jr., in a letter to the court, said Flowers has made mistakes, but is remorseful.

“Mr. Flowers is not a bad person. He is indeed a good person with a compassionate heart,” Mendez wrote.

Then-State’s Attorney Jennifer Barrett also charged the Flowers with aggravated assault with a weapon and two counts of aggravated assault for attacks on two other men that day, records show.

Vermont State Police said they never disclosed the attempted murder in Derby to the public for more than 10 months until detectives believed they had enough to charge the father and son with the crimes. Vermont’s Public Safety Commissioner Michael Schirling said it was a major mistake for state police detectives to try to hide the attempted murder case from taxpayers.

Flintroy and the Flowers were part of an out-of-state big city group that came to rural Vermont to establish a drug business, officials said. At least seven people have been convicted as part of the joint federal-state-county and local investigation into illegal trafficking of drugs and guns and other crimes.

Assisting the ATF and the 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.