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.
