RUTLAND — A 40-year-old White River Junction man pleaded guilty to a federal firearms charge on Wednesday in U.S. District Court and was taken into custody, a court spokesman said.
Richard Whitcomb Jr., who has been identified by a federal prosecutor as a suspect in the 2018 disappearance of Royalton resident Austin Colson, will be sentenced Jan. 8 on the charge of being a felon in possession of a firearm.
Under the terms of the plea agreement, he would be sentenced to 37 months in prison.
The federal charge stems from Whitcomb, who is a felon, possessing a .32-caliber pistol on Jan. 16, 2018, according to court documents.
Colson disappeared in January 2018 on a day family members said he was expected to collect scrap metal with Whitcomb.
Colson’s body was found months later in a barn in Norwich with gunshot wounds to the head. His death has been ruled a homicide; no one has been charged.