NEWPORT – A judge denied the release of a 47-year-old Claremont man charged with providing his 69-year-old mother-in-law with a fatal dose of fentanyl.
Christopher Daignault, by waiving arraignment, entered not guilty pleas to one felony count of drug sale with death resulting, a felony count of witness tampering and two felony counts of controlled drug acts prohibited on Wednesday morning in Sullivan Superior Court.
The most serious of the charges, fatal drug sale, carries a potential penalty of life in prison.
A Sullivan County Grand Jury indicted Daignault on the four felonies in July, roughly four months after the overdose death of his mother-in-law, Jane LaFountain.
The cause of LaFountain’s death in March was initially undetermined. In April, however, toxicological findings by the New Hampshire Office of the Chief Medical Examiner determined that the cause of death was fentanyl toxicity and the manner was accidental.
During an investigation by the Claremont Police Department, Joseph LaFountain, Jane’s husband, told police that his wife had been homebound for a couple of years and that Daignault provided her with drugs in the hours preceding her death, according to Claremont Police Chief Brent Wilmot’s affidavit in support of the charges.
Jospeh LaFountain asked Daignault what he gave her the night before she died. Daignault denied giving her fentanyl, but said he gave her naloxone, also known by the brand name Narcan. The conversation was recorded by police at the authorization of the Sullivan County Attorney’s Office and transcribed in the affidavit.
“Just because (fentanyl is) in her system, that’s not the reason,” Daignault allegedly said.
He did admit to giving her fentanyl previously when she had an episode of convulsions in bed a couple weeks prior to her death, according to the affidavit.
“The amount that I gave her wouldn’t even f–ing hurt an ant,” Daignault allegedly said.
“Well, it put her in the grave,” LaFountain said.
Still, Daignault denied that fentanyl killed her. LaFountain asked what he was supposed to tell the authorities if they called him.
At Daignault’s arraignment and bail hearing on Wednesday morning, Sullivan County prosecutor Christine Hilliard quoted Daignault’s response to LaFountain.
“You’re gonna say you had no idea,” Hilliard read from the affidavit. “Your wife took medications.”
Joseph LaFountain told police during the investigation that his wife’s use of “drugs/medications, outside of those lawfully prescribed by her physician(s), began approximately four years ago (after the death of her sister).” He added that whatever drugs she was taking that were not legally prescribed were given to her by their daughter Jennifer Daignault and her husband, Christopher Daignault.
“Unless you want me to go to jail. I will take the blame,” Hilliard further quoted the transcript in the affidavit. “I didn’t murder mom. She was a grown woman. Made her own decisions. I refused in the beginning and I got talked into doing it, so I had no f–ing choice. It was either listen to f–ing her flip out at Jenn, or f–ing make them both happy … yes, she had fentanyl in her system, but that is not the f–ing reason.”
As Hilliard quoted the transcript, one of the six family members in the gallery shook her head and muttered in protest.
Daignault, wearing chains and corrections orange, turned his head back in a quick but low-voiced snap of “shut up.”
During the bail arguments after Daignault waived arraignment, Hilliard argued for his continued detention.
She cited New Hampshire law stating that “any person arrested for an offense punishable by up to life in prison, where the proof is evident or the presumption great, shall not be allowed bail.”
“I believe that he is dangerous,” Hilliard said.
Daignault has no prior criminal history, countered Defense Counsel Sara Virks, and when he was granted furlough from jail to attend the funeral of his own mother, she said “he abided by all conditions that were required of him” and returned that same day.
Virks argued for Daignault’s release on personal recognizance, with the condition that he participate in substance abuse disorder treatment.
Interviewed by police following his mother-in-law’s death, Daignault allegedly admitted that he “dabbled a little bit” in fentanyl use following a car crash in September, but that he “does not use fentanyl right now” and did not have any around the time of his mother-in-law’s death, according to the affidavit.
When asked by Judge James Kennedy during bail arguments how the defense responds to the state’s statutory issue prohibiting bail for offenses punishable by life imprisonment “where the proof is evident or the presumption great,” Virks conceded that while there is “certainly evidence against (Daignault), there are other indicators here that there is perhaps another party that could be responsible for the situation.”
“Are you challenging that the presumption is not great?” Kennedy asked.
“I’m not agreeing that the presumption is great at this time,” she said.
Kennedy went on to ask if the defense was requesting a hearing to weigh the evidence.
“I’m not necessarily prepared to make a decision on that today,” Virks said.
In a recent email to the Valley News, Claremont Police Chief Brent Wilmot stated that he anticipates “additional arrests/charges.”
“The Sullivan County Attorney’s Office has the complete file and are working to determine who/what is going to be charged next,” he said.
Ultimately, the court sided with the state on Wednesday.
Kennedy ordered Daignault to remain detained in Cheshire County Jail in Keene, where he has been locked up since his arrest in late April (he was transferred from Sullivan County Jail in Unity due to a conflict of a family member working as a corrections officer there).
Daignault, who first turned to give a smile to his family on his way into the courtroom, didn’t look back as a sheriff’s deputy escorted him out.
Outside the courtroom after the hearing, Daignault’s family declined to comment.
