Federal prosecutors filed notice on Tuesday that they’d seek the death penalty against a Stowe man accused of killing two Massachusetts men in 2023.
This marks the second death penalty case that’s been brought in federal court in Vermont in recent months.
Theodore Bland, 30, faces eight charges related to the fatal shootings of 21-year-olds Jahim Solomon and Eric White, according to a new superseding indictment that was also filed on Tuesday. Bland previously pleaded not guilty to federal gun and drug trafficking charges related to the killings.
Bland has not been arraigned on the new charges, which allege that he conspired to sell cocaine base and fentanyl, used a gun while drug trafficking, and shot and killed Solomon and White.
Police found Solomon and White’s bodies in a wooded area in Eden in October 2023. Autopsies determined that White was shot once in the head, and Solomon was shot in the head multiple times. The two men disappeared under suspicious circumstances while traveling through several towns, including Burlington, Morrisville and Stowe, state police said.
According to the United States Attorney’s Office for the District of Vermont, Bland tried to conceal the killing of Solomon and White, including by getting others to help him move their bodies. Earlier this year, Dilan Jiron pleaded guilty to federal charges that he helped Bland conceal evidence and hide the bodies.
Federal prosecutors cited several factors as justification for seeking the death penalty. In the notice to the court, they wrote Bland was previously convicted of using a firearm against a person, that he allegedly killed more than one person, and that his alleged shooting of Solomon was “especially heinous” and “involved torture or serious physical abuse to the victim.”
Bland’s attorneys declined to comment Wednesday.
Vermont abolished the death penalty for state cases in 1972, but it can still be brought in federal cases.
Shortly after President Donald Trump began his second term, U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi lifted a moratorium on federal executions and called on prosecutors to pursue the death penalty “in appropriate cases.” In her memo, Bondi cited the case of Teresa Youngblut in Vermont as an example.
In August, federal prosecutors decided to seek the death penalty against Youngblut, 21, who was accused of fatally shooting a Border Patrol agent in Coventry.
The last person sentenced to death in Vermont was Donald Fell, who was convicted in 2005 of kidnapping and killing a supermarket worker. But the sentence was thrown out due to juror misconduct.
