WOODSTOCK — One of three men charged with breaking into a Springfield, Vt., home in 2022 and holding a family with children and other occupants at gunpoint over an apparent drugs-and-money dispute pleaded guilty just days before he was set to go on trial this month.
Jesse LaFlam Sr., 53, pleaded guilty to burglary into an occupied dwelling and aiding in the commission of assault and robbery with a weapon in Windsor County Court and was sentenced to three to 10 years in state prison on Nov. 13, according to court records.
Other charges, including kidnapping and aggravated assault with a deadly weapon were dismissed under a “global resolution” plea agreement that encompassed four other criminal that cases that had been pending against LaFlam since 2021, court records show.
LaFlam was among four men — one who was found shot dead in Bennington, Vt., a few days later and another who subsequently died in 2023 while his charges were still pending — who police said entered a Springfield residence in the early morning hours of July 30, 2022. Once inside, they held the people there at gunpoint, including three children and their parents, before robbing and taking one of the male occupants to a location in Chester, Vt.
LaFlam has a long criminal history in the Twin States, including eight prior convictions in Vermont on offenses such as drug possession, grand larceny, forgery, aggravated domestic assault, unlawful mischief and violating his conditions of release.
The other surviving member of the four identified in the Springfield, Vt., home invasion, Zachary Russell, was sentenced last year after pleading guilty to burglary into an occupied dwelling, interfering with emergency services, simple assault and petit larceny.
Last Month, a Massachusetts man pleaded guilty to a charge of manslaughter in the shooting death of Patrick Mullinnex, who police identified as one of the four involved in the Springfield home invasion and who was found shot dead in Bennington a few days later.
LaFlam is currently incarcerated at Marble Valley Regional Correctional Center in Rutland, according to Department of Corrections records.