WHITE RIVER JUNCTION — A Windsor County judge found one of the six suspects in a January kidnapping unfit for bail following a Thursday hearing during which the court reviewed body camera footage and heard from the suspect’s mother.
Tyron Harris, 27, of Holyoke, Mass., has been held at Southern State Correctional Facility in Springfield, Vt., without bail since his Jan. 26 arraignment, during which he pleaded not guilty to four kidnapping charges involving bodily injury or fear and ransom, two extortion charges and and one aggravated assault using a deadly weapon charge.
He will remain there for the time being following Judge Elizabeth Mann’s Friday ruling.
“The safeguards proposed — release of Mr. Harris to the custody of his Mother — are insufficient,” Mann wrote.
Harris appeared in-person at Windsor County District Court on Thursday.
During the hearing, the prosecutors argued for his continued detention, introducing video evidence and soliciting testimony from police.
Harris’ mother, Valerie Gamble, of Holyoke, Mass., testified in favor of his release, agreeing to assume responsibility for him.
“Ronnie is a very good kid,” Gamble told a reporter after the hearing.
During the hearing, Harris’ girlfriend, Kalany Figueroa, sat on a bench directly behind Harris holding their 2-year old daughter, Avani. With them were Harris’ sister, Alexis Gamble Harris, and Gamble. The four family members travelled together from Massachusetts to Vermont to attend the hearing.
Harris’ family members asked the judge to allow him to return home and care for Gamble, who said following the hearing that she had suffered a stroke and had cancer. The prosecution, however, argued that Harris is in no position to be released back into society.
“The state understands the defendant’s mother is here, she would like him home … Unfortunately, the extensive record over the last few years is that the defendant will not follow conditions, is a flight risk and is now charged with very serious felonies,” Windsor County State’s Attorney Ward Goodenough said Thursday in court.
Goodenough appeared along with Deputy State’s Attorney Sara Arrato to present the prosecution’s case for continuing to hold Harris.
Public defender Joshua Stern argued that Harris has not been appropriately identified by the victim aside from a street name, “Preech,” which police linked to him based on a physical description. Furthermore, the victim did not attribute acts of violence to Preech specifically, due to reportedly being blindfolded.
Springfield Police Sgt. Philip Perkins, a responding officer who interviewed the victim at the scene, and again hours later in the Emergency Department at Springfield Hospital, took the stand first on Thursday.
In response to questions from Arrato, Perkins said that his department learned of a potential hostage situation in Springfield from police in Greenfield, Mass., after the victim’s ex-boyfriend notified them under an assumption that the victim was in Massachusetts due to misinformation from the perpetrators and recollection of her being in Greenfield previously.
Police ultimately traced her cellphone to 950 Randall Hill Road in Springfield.
Police made initial contact with the tenants of the building, one of whom — 37-year-old Sheldon Stocker — they arrested. Perkins reported hearing more people inside. Through his police radio, he called for backup. Someone over the radio asked about the victim’s condition.
“She’s shaken up,” Perkins responded. “They badly burned her. She’s in one of our cruisers. We got people in every one of our cruisers.”
In a body camera video, Perkins spoke with the victim while she was in the back of a police cruiser. She said the perpetrators accused her of stealing drugs and identified “Preech” as the male with dreads who was wearing purple.
Police identified another man the victim called “Gifted” as Damarcus Bonner, 30, of Hartford, Conn. He faces the most charges in this case, with nine total.
In the video, the victim explained that she and Nicole Palardy, 36, were planning to buy drugs, and Palardy waited outside a vehicle for her to come outside of her friend’s Claremont residence after midnight on Jan. 23. When the victim opened the door, two males forced her into the vehicle.
“They literally snatched me,” the victim said.
Palardy faces a felony kidnapping charge of ransom and a felony accessory to kidnapping charge of bodily injury or fear, both of which she plead not guilty to. She is incarcerated at the Chittenden Regional Correctional Facility in South Burlington with a $100,000 bail.
There were about eight total people in the truck when she was abducted, the victim told police, four up front and four in the back. She identified the driver as Jesse Emerson, 46. She alleged there were others present but was unable to identify them.
Emerson faces a felony accessory to kidnapping charge of bodily injury or fear, to which he pleaded not guilty. He is incarcerated at Southern State Correctional Facility with a $50,000 bail.
In the interview, the victim expressed a fear of pressing criminal charges, specifically that the suspects would retaliate by harming her child.
In the early morning hours of Jan. 25, Perkins, along with two Claremont detectives and Windsor County Sheriff Ryan Palmer, interviewed the victim.
She reported being driven across state lines and restrained at the Springfield residence by a Hispanic female, identified by police as Jessenialyz Jones, 18, and said they took her phone away.
At some point, the suspects allegedly restrained a second victim who was already in the home and also accused her of stealing drugs.
“They couldn’t figure out if it was one of us who did it or if we did it together,” said the initial victim.
The victim alleged the perpetrators burned her with a hot knife, struck her and waterboarded her with peroxide, which police say her injuries and evidence found at the scene corroborate.
The suspects allegedly used the victim’s phone to contact people who knew her, including her ex-boyfriend in Rutland, Vt., and demanded money.
When police arrived, the suspects tried to remove duct tape used to bind the victim and hide her from view, though she ran outside, she told police.
Stern, the defense attorney, argued that there is not sufficient evidence to continue holding Harris without bail, especially due to the victim referring to individuals by nicknames.
When police asked the victim at the hospital if “Preech” was the male with dreads wearing purple, she responded, “I think so.”
Stern said that the state is relying on an assumption about the suspect’s identity, considering there were allegedly eight people in the car at the time of the kidnapping. Even if the court can establish that Harris is “Preech,” there still is insufficient evidence against him, Stern said.
The victim is “very unclear about the roles each of these individuals play,” said Stern.
Stern added that release under strict conditions would adequately address risk of flight and to the public. Harris’ criminal record does not include convictions, he said, despite pending charges in Massachusetts and Vermont 2024. He has not failed to appear.
Gamble took the stand on Thursday and said she lives with one of her other sons, who is a correctional officer. No one at her residence has a criminal record, nor are there any guns, drugs or alcohol, she testified.
Gamble said she has the space for Harris to live and agreed to assume custody of Harris and ensure he abides by bail conditions if he were to be released. She also agreed to report failure to comply immediately to police.
Goodenough, at the hearing, argued that Harris is a poor candidate for bail because the victim accused him of involvement in violent felonies, and he has a history of drug charges and evading police.
Goodenough argued that footage of the victim’s testimony illustrated that she was experiencing a high level of fear, and that Harris’ release would pose a threat to the public given the seriousness of his charges.
Mann’s Friday order found that due to evidence surrounding the alleged crime and Harris’ history of evading law enforcement, he must remain in police custody without bail.
She noted in her decision that as Gamble is confined to a wheelchair, she “would be unable to stop Tyron from leaving her home.”
Outside the courtroom on Thursday, Harris’ family expressed their hope for his release. His sister noted that while she also cares for their mother, she has a family of her own to return to each night.
“He just ended up with the wrong crowd of people,” said Gamble Harris of her brother.
The five other suspects in the case — Bonner, Jones, Stocker, Palardy and Emerson — had no upcoming appearances scheduled on the Windsor County Court calendar as of Friday.
