WHITE RIVER JUNCTION — A Windsor Superior Court judge has denied Richard Whitcomb Jr.’s request to have his home improvement fraud case tried in another county.
Whitcomb, 39, of Hartford, asked Judge Timothy Tomasi in May to move the case out of Windsor County, saying he couldn’t receive a fair and impartial trial here because of the publicity generated about him being a suspect in the January 2018 disappearance of 19-year-old Austin Colson, whose remains were found in a Norwich barn five months later. Whitcomb also was accused of engaging in a drug and gun transaction with Colson.
Judge Timothy Tomasi ruled May 10 that he is “not convinced, at this stage,” that the publicity generated will deny Whitcomb the right to a fair trial, and thus, denied his motion.
There are processes in place through jury selection that should be sufficient to weed out jurors exhibiting any potential bias, the judge wrote.
Whitcomb pleaded not guilty to one felony count of home improvement fraud in June 2018, which alleges he cashed a $3,000 check to build a deck for a Hartford man and never following through with the job, police said at the time.
Whitcomb also has pleaded not guilty to two firearms counts in federal court, a case that remains ongoing. One of those charges alleges the unlawful possession of a .32-caliber semiautomatic handgun as a convicted felon in January, while the second felony charge alleges that the handgun was used as collateral in a cocaine deal with Colson in January 2018.
Whitcomb is slated to appear at the White River Junction courthouse on July 8.