A Swanton man is facing a murder charge for allegedly fatally shooting another man who had recently been staying in the same home as he was early Saturday morning.
Mitchal Shedrick, 52, pleaded not guilty to a charge of second-degree murder Monday during his arraignment hearing in Franklin County Superior criminal court in St. Albans. The felony offense, according to charging documents, stems from the shooting death of 37-year-old Joshua Many during an argument.
Judge Navah Spero granted a request from Franklin County Deputy State’s Attorney Diane Wheeler to hold Shedrick in custody without bail pending a further hearing in the case.
The investigation leading to the murder charge began around 3:15 a.m. Saturday when police reported receiving 911 calls from the residence on Fourth Street in Swanton, according to charging documents.
Responding officers, the filings stated, found a man, later identified as Many, dead inside.
Katrina Montgomery told investigators she was Many’s fiancee and that they had been staying at the residence on Fourth Street for a few weeks, Detective Sgt. Isaac Merriam of the Vermont State Police wrote in an affidavit in support of the murder charge.
Montgomery added that several other people resided at the home, including Shedrick, according to the filing. Montgomery said an argument took place between Shedrick and Many in an upstairs room following a dispute that started over money, Merriam wrote.
She reported hearing a gunshot and then she ran upstairs and heard Many say, “You shot me” and then “Why did you shoot me?” as he exited Shedrick’s room holding his chest, the affidavit stated.
Many made it to a downstairs room, where he collapsed, and Montgomery said she called 911, according to the charging document. Another person at the home at the time of the shooting reported to police that Many and Shedrick had been “bickering back and forth” over a drug debt for more than a week, Merriam wrote in the affidavit.
A later autopsy determined Many’s cause of death to be a gunshot wound to his torso, according to the filing.
Attorney Paul Groce, representing Shedrick during the arraignment Monday, argued against the prosecution’s request to hold his client without bail. Groce said that based on the charging document there is at least an “outline” of a possible self-defense claim.
He added that Shedrick was not a flight risk, having lived at the residence for many years and having limited mobility. Shedrick attended the hearing Monday in a wheelchair.
Wheeler, the prosecutor, countered that the evidence was strong, adding that there were witnesses in the home who provided sworn statements that they saw Shedrick with a gun and heard Many after being shot asking Shedrick, “Why’d you shoot me?”
Spero, the judge, said she was holding Shedrick without bail, at least for now, pending another hearing to more thoroughly consider the strength of the prosecution’s evidence in the case.
If convicted of the second-degree murder charge, Shedrick faces 20 years to life in prison.
