2 weeks Ago
BURLINGTON, Vt. — Federal prosecutors said that the 29-year-old man who had been the primary person of interest in a double homicide in northern Vermont last fall actually did pull the trigger that killed two out-of-state drug dealers. Federal prosecutors in Vermont say Theodore "Theo" Bland, 29, of Burlington, Vt.
, fired the gun that killed two Massachusetts men in October 2023. A new indictment returned Thursday against Theodore "Theo" Bland, 29, of Burlington, Vt., includes charges of using and carrying a firearm in relation to a drug trafficking crime and discharging that firearm during the commission of the offense last October.
Jahim Solomon, 21, of Pittsfield, Mass., and Eric White, 21, of Chicopee, Mass., were killed by the shots Bland fired at a house they were in in Lowell, Vt.
, according to new records filed in federal court. Solomon and White had taken an Uber ride with Bland and his girlfriend one day before the killings, according to court records. Investigators collected considerable social messaging evidence that links Bland to the killings, Assistant U.
S. Attorney Jason Turner said in court papers. Following the homicides, Bland's messages show he asked associates to help conceal the crime, Turner wrote.
The new indictment against Bland names Dilan Jiron, 28, of Hyde Park, Vt., as a co-defendant. Jiron is indicted for helping Bland hide from authorities, the indictment said.
The name of a third person charged in the indictment was redacted, apparently because he is not in custody. The third defendant is charged with conspiring with Bland and others to distribute crack. Turner said authorities have video recordings, business records and testimony that establish a timeline for the crimes.
"Forensic evidence was collected from the victims, the scene of the homicides, and the scene where the victims' bodies were recovered," Turner wrote. "The evidence is also strong that after the defendant killed Solomon and White, he induced others to help him conceal the crimes, including moving the bodies of Solomon and White to two wooded areas in Eden, Vermont," Turner said. Vermont News First had broken the story initially in multiple newspapers in Vermont and Massachusetts in December 2023 that Bland was the person of interest in the double homicide.
The following month, the U.S. Attorney's Office later used that story in an effort to ask a judge to have Bland detained in an unrelated earlier gun and drug case in South Burlington.
The judge agreed. Prosecutors declined to elaborate on why Bland was a person of interest. The latest information comes as the new indictment was returned by a federal grand jury against Bland and the two co-defendants.
The four-count indictment also charges Bland with conspiracy to distribute crack cocaine and possession of fentanyl and crack cocaine with intent to distribute on Oct. 12, 2023, the day of the double homicide. After the fatal shootings, an associate of Bland later told Vermont State Police that the bodies could be found in remote areas off the Albany-Eden Road in the town of Eden, records show.
Vermont Game Warden Dustin Snyder and his K-9, Fletch, found the body of Solomon on Oct. 24, records show. As police combed the area the next day, Morristown Police Detective Lt.
Todd Baxter located the body of White nearly a mile farther into the woods, police have said. The bodies were covered with plastic, similar to a large roll of plastic what was found at the home in which they were killed, records show. Family members and police have said Solomon and White got to know each other while serving time for juvenile crimes in Massachusetts.
They also have subsequent adult criminal convictions. Bland is scheduled to be sentenced on Oct. 21 in an unrelated gun case in Chittenden County, Vermont.
Bland is expected to receive a 14-month federal prison sentence. He will get credit for his time in custody since about Nov. 1.
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