COURT RECORDS: SHOPPING SPREE, BAD DRUG BUY PRECEDED ATTEMPTED MURDER
ST. ALBANS: Newly released court records are beginning to detail how an alleged attempted murder took place in St. Albans on Thursday.
According to multiple witnesses five people, including a three-year-old girl traveling with the group, spent much of the day celebrating and spending the money from a tax return before the shooting took place.
The police affidavit indicates that Scott Burton, 46, Katie Noel, 26, Zakk Trombly, 22, Samantha Partlow, 19, and Scott’s three-year-old daughter, Kendra, were in the vehicle when the incident took place.
Burton was in the front passenger’s seat, Noel was driving, the three-year-old was behind the driver’s seat in a car seat. Partlow was in the middle and Trombly in the right rear seat.
Burton, Noel and Partlow all told police that they spent the day in St. Albans shopping, and going to the Lucky Buffet Chinese Restaurant before eventually looking to score some cocaine at the St. Albans Park and Ride.
(article continues below ad)
[bar group=”88″]
The three also said that they briefly stopped at Franklin County Rehab Center, where Noel is employed as a LNA. After arranging for the drug deal, the crew waited at the Park and Ride until Dustin Davenport arrived.
Partlow left the others to go make the drug deal with Davenport, according to testimony given to the investigators. When she returned to the car with the drugs, Burton told her that she had been ripped off.
Partlow told the investigators that Davenport had sold her a crushed up, white pill instead of two grams of crack. That transaction allegedly cost $200.
Partlow and Trombly allegedly knew where Davenport lived, on Lake Street, so they began looking for Davenport in order to get their money back.
It was unclear in the affidavit who the crack cocaine was intended for, but Noel did admit to detectives that she uses 10mg of Percocet every day, crushed up and snorted.
When police arrived at her Swanton home, she also told police that they wouldn’t find any drugs in the home. When pressured as to why she was so certain that there would be no drugs found, Noel finally told the officers that she had rounded up all of her marijuana, pipes, and other drug paraphernalia and sent it with the three-year-old daughter to a friend’s house.
Trombly was oddly quiet as they looked for Davenport and Davenport’s vehicle, one occupant of the vehicle told police.
When they found Davenport parked in the lot at the Catholic Church on Lake Street, Trombly immediately jumped out of the car and started screaming and pounding on Davenport’s window, according to the other three adults in the car.
Burton told investigators that he estimated that they were in the parking lot for less than one minute total.
Several witnesses, including the boyfriend of Davenport’s mother, told police that Trombly was the shooter, and identified both him and his vehicle.
(article continues below ad)
[bar group=”87″]
When police finally caught up with Trombly on Canada Street in Swanton, about a block from where he left the others and the getaway vehicle on First Street, he was carrying a red backpack.
Minutes earlier Noel told police that Trombly had changed his clothes and had left with a red backpack.
“Trombly stated something to the effect of ‘you can’t search that bag without a warrant,'” Trooper Matthew Johnson wrote to the court.
A Judge would later issue that warrant, where police found a .40 caliber Smith and Wesson Shield, which preliminarily matched the .40 caliber shell casings found at the shooting scene.
They also found a gray hooded sweatshirt and boxes of ammunition, according to the affidavit of probable cause.
Police transported Trombly back to the Vermont State Police Barracks for questioning, where he initially co-operated, police said.
He waived his rights to remain silent and agreed to speak with investigators.
(article continues below ad)
[bar group=”96″]
The officers began to question him, asking him if he knew why he was brought in for questioning.
He told the officers he didn’t know.
Once the investigators told him that several witnesses placed him as the shooter at a crime scene earlier that day in St. Albans, he insisted that it was not him.
“He told me that he is not an aggressive person, that he is not like that,” Trooper Bourgeois wrote to the court.
Trombly soon told police he had nothing else to say and that he would now be taking advantage of his right to remain silent.
When officers transported him to St. Albans City Police Station for processing, Sergeant Lozier told Trombly that he would be charged with First-Degree Murder.
“Say no more,” Trombly replied, “Have a good day guys.”
Trombly was ultimately charged with Attempted Second-Degree Murder, a felony charge that carries a presumptive life sentence with a minimum of 20 years.
This is not the first time Trombly has found himself behind bars. According to his police record, he served 59 days in 2015 for an assault charge. The man also has nine other misdemeanor convictions on his record, mostly robberies, and trespassing and petit larceny.
Scott Burton has prior convictions for DUI and simple assault.
The County Courier did not find any criminal records matching Samantha Partlow or Katie Noel.
[bar group=”86″]
