The man arrested for the killing of a Hinesburg, Vermont transgender woman has been charged with second degree murder and is being held without bail. Fern Feather, the 29-year-old victim, was found on the roadside stabbed to death in Morristown, Vermont, on April 12. The suspect had pleaded not guilty.
Reports VT Digger:
[Seth] Brunell has been held without bail in the Northeast Correctional Complex in St. Johnsbury since his arraignment last month. At Monday’s evidentiary hearing, Brunell’s attorney, David Sleigh, asked a judge to release Brunell into the custody of a friend.
“Mr. Brunell made a cogent and immediate and unambiguous claim of self-defense in this case,” Sleigh said, noting that argument “would be grounds for acquittal.”
But a prosecutor argued that Brunell poses too great a risk to release.
“The defendant is a violent person,” said Aliena Gerhard, the Lamoille County deputy state’s attorney, referencing a previous assault conviction. “His record shows that. He has a history of transience. He has a history of mental instability. And your honor, the charge here is homicide.” …
After a roughly hour-and-a-half long hearing, the judge granted the prosecutor’s request to keep Brunell held without bail.
“I think the strength of the evidence is great from what I see of it,” Harris said. “It appeared to be, if it was provoked assault, not adequately provoked for a deadly use of a knife.”
Last year, Gov. Phil Scott signed a law banning the LGBTQ+ “panic” defense, a legal strategy in which suspects justify violence by citing their victims’ sexual or gender identity.
No trial or future hearing has been scheduled yet, according to Sleigh.
Read the complete VT Digger article here.
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