A Stowe, Vt., man who avoided the death penalty was handed two consecutive life sentences in the 2023 fatal shootings of two men in the Northeast Kingdom.
“This crime shocked Vermont in its callousness and left the families of two young men with a grief that will never end,” Vermont State Police Criminal Division Commander Major Ashley Barnes wrote in a news release from the U.S. Attorney’s office for Vermont.
Senior U.S. District Judge William K. Sessions III sentenced Theodore Bland, 31, Monday for the murder of Jahim Solomon and Eric White, both of Massachusetts.
Bland killed Solomon and White for cocaine base and fentanyl to “further his own drug distribution conspiracy,” the U.S. Attorney’s office said in a news release.
A sentencing memo issued by Bland’s attorneys asking the court to accept a plea deal to avoid the death penalty detailed his “remorse” and his history of addiction. He began using marijuana in the eighth grade, progressing to the use of cocaine, heroin and opioids through his teenage years, according to the memo.
Assistant U.S. Attorneys Jason Turner and Dana Hill wrote that the Lamoille County and surrounding communities were “already suffering great harm” from Bland’s drug distribution activity.
On Oct. 25, 2023, police in Eden, Vt., reported discovering the bodies of two men who had been fatally shot. Bland was indicted in September 2024 on several charges, including that he fired a gun during a drug crime.
Bland pleaded not guilty in March 2025. When U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi authorized federal prosecutors’ pursuit of capital punishment in October, Bland again pleaded not guilty.
In April, however, Bland reached a plea agreement, agreeing to plead guilty after death penalty recommendations were withdrawn.
Bland was also ordered to pay $12,504.92 in restitution to the Vermont Center for Crime Victim Services.
This story was first published by VtDigger and is republished with permission as part of the Vermont Journalism Trust’s Community News Sharing Project.