Plainfield, VT- Vermont State Police have arrested two men in connection to the shooting death of a Barre man following a short standoff Monday night.
Kyle Bressette, 35, of Barre, has pleaded not guilty to second-degree murder , and Chris Relation, 51, of Berlin, has pleaded not guilty to being an accessory after the fact to murder in connection to the death of Jeffrey Caron, 42, whose body was found by hunters last Fri. near Gore Road.
Bressette was arraigned on Wed. and ordered to be held without bail until a hearing later this month, that has yet to be scheduled.
Both men were arrested during a police search of Relation’s home on Turner Hill Rd in Berlin where the suspects were staying Mon. night. Bressette and Relation refused to listen to police at first, but then complied after several hours according to state police.
Police say the shooting stemmed from a dispute involving drugs and they believe the homicide happened on Oct. 24th or 25th. According to a release from the Barre City Police Dept., Caron was arrested on Oct. 13 and charged with fentanyl trafficking charges after a police search of a home on North Main St in Barre, belonging to Jonie Bresett, who was also arrested.
According to the court affidavit, Bresett told police that on Oct. 24 she overheard Caron and Relation talking about robbing Bressette for his drugs and money. Bresett told police that Relation and Caron then borrowed her car, a Nissan Rogue, to go to Relation’s mobile-home on Turner Hill Rd in Berlin. She tells police she never saw Caron again after that.
Court records say that Caron and Relation messaged each other back and forth about selling drugs, and an apparent disagreement with “an unknown Facebook account”.
After being arrested, Relation told police Bresette was living with him in exchange for crack cocaine, and Relation no longer wanted him in the home. Relation said that after leaving Jonie Bresett’s home he dropped Caron off near the mobile-home on Turner Hill Rd before picking up Bressette to go to Walmart. Caron reportedly walked to the mobile-home while they were gone. When they returned, Relation says Caron confronted Bressette, who shot Caron in the chest. Then, Bressette turned the gun on Relation at which point he told him to, “keep his mouth shut,” according to the court affidavit. Relation initially denied helping to move the body, but police say he later admitted to helping Bressette move Caron’s body inside the home.
A search warrant was issued for the the Nissan Rogue, where police say they found a red brown stain that tested positive for blood on the rear passenger floor.
In his interview with police, Bressette remembered going to Walmart, but couldn’t remember what car it was in, and told police that he went to his bedroom when they returned and didn’t know what Relation did the rest of the night. Bressette told police he had never met nor heard of Jeffrey Caron.
Bressette was also wanted on a number of other charges including aggravated assault on a law enforcement officer and aggravated operation of a vehicle without owner’s consent.
According to state police, this incident is not connected to the other 6 homicides and suspicious deaths that happened in Oct. No suspects have been arrested related to those cases.
