Brattleboro, Vt.
Leonard Moffatt is facing a first-degree murder charge in the case. He sought home detention in a motion hearing in Windham Superior Court Criminal Division on Tuesday. He has been in jail for about a year and a half now.
Just as Brattleboro Probation and Parole Program Supervisor Phillip Damone was taking the stand, defense attorney Christopher Montgomery had the motion withdrawn.
Moffatt “does not want the state to make any insinuation of collusion,” Montgomery said.
The residence proposed for home detention was the home where his children and wife, Krista Moffatt, live. She’s a co-defendant with Moffatt in a cocaine possession case pending in court in Windsor County.
Windham County Deputy State’s Attorney David Gartenstein is requesting that the charge be consolidated with the murder charge as authorities say the drugs were found following the homicide investigation. He said the possession charge was relevant to the murder case because it was part of the same criminal scheme or criminal conduct.
Leonard Moffatt was allegedly purchasing cocaine — about an ounce or two at a time, on six or seven occasions, for several months — from the victim, Sultan Rashed. Gartenstein said there was substantial evidence to show that Moffatt was planning to meet Rashed on Nov. 9, 2015, at Brattleboro Collision Auto Body Shop, where Rashed’s body was found the same day. Video images of Moffatt’s vehicle caught on surveillance cameras near the body shop have been analyzed by the New York State Police and will be used as evidence. There are also phone records showing communication.
Krista Moffatt allegedly told police she was asked by her husband to hide cocaine, and she noted that the amount was more than she had seen her husband with in the past, adding he had been higher on the drug than usual, according to court documents. At the time, Moffatt was believed to have racked up about $10,000 in debt to Rashed.
Judge Michael Kainen said the ruling on consolidating the charges will depend on whether Krista Moffatt will testify in the murder trial. A pre-trial conference will be held a few days before then.
Montgomery said the evidence does not suggest the cocaine belonged to Moffatt or came from Rashed.
“What the state wants to do is create a story and go backwards,” Montgomery said. “They want the jury to make assumptions. There’s no evidence that links them together.”
Arguing for the Department of Corrections’ electronic monitoring of his client, Montgomery said evidence in the murder case has only gotten weaker over time.
“(Moffatt) has every incentive to go to trial to establish he is not guilty,” Montgomery said. “If he were to flee, that would be the first real strong evidence he was guilty.”
Gartenstein agreed that the state’s evidence is circumstantial but he said it could be as “fully sufficient” as direct evidence to establish Moffatt’s guilt. Moffatt’s previous convictions for assault and domestic assault, and violation of probation, were cited by Gartenstein in his argument against home detention.
Also noted was a disciplinary report related to Moffatt’s use of opiates in jail in November.