by Mike Donoghue, Vermont News First, Vermont Business Magazine
Burlington Police have arrested two suspects on adult murder charges in the vicious beating death of a man next to City Hall Park August 11.
Isaiah Argro, 26, of Queens, N.Y. and Karson Taylor, 16, of South Burlington are facing second-degree murder charges in connection with a fatal assault on Aug. 11, city police said in a news release.
They are charged in the fatal daytime beating of Scott Kastner, 42, of Burlington next to City Hall.
Kastner died five days after the attack from complications due to blunt force trauma to the head, according to a ruling by the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner on Wednesday, police said.
The following day Burlington Police obtained arrest warrants from a state judge charging both suspects in adult criminal court, Interim Police Chief Shawn Burke said in a news release.
Police had said at the time they had caught three juveniles, ages 14 to 16, fleeing from the area of City Hall Park after the assault in broad daylight.
Vermont News First was told earlier this week that five people were involved in the attack, including one man clearly considered an adult.
Investigators were aided by video of the attack.
Burlington Police detectives located Argro at a residence in the Hillside section of Shelburne on Friday night and took him into custody without incident, officials said.
Taylor was tracked to Higher Ground, a nightclub at 1214 Williston Road in South Burlington early Saturday, officials said. South Burlington Police secured the perimeter, and the Burlington Police Emergency Response Unit located Taylor at the nightclub and arrested him after a brief struggle, they said.
Both suspects were taken to the Northwest State Correctional Facility in St. Albans and ordered held without bail pending court, police said.
Argo is detained without bail, jail records show.
The Vermont DOC does not have Taylor listed as an inmate on its statewide inmate tracking system, apparently due to his age. A federal regulation prohibits Taylor from being within sight or sound of an adult prison inmate, so the state takes special precautions.
Vermont does not have any secure juvenile detention centers.
Argo and Taylor are due for arraignment in adult court in Vermont Superior Court in Burlington on Tuesday morning.
Kastner, a Pittsfield, Mass native, was attacked by Burlington City Hall Park about 1:35 p.m. Aug. 11, police said. He was critically injured and taken to the UVM Medical Center where his condition worsened, officials said.
Burlington Police confirmed a Vermont News First report that the victim died Aug. 16, but withheld his name for 10 days, and only after his obituary had been posted. Meanwhile the police search for the other two suspects intensified.
Burlington Police had said on Tuesday they were still waiting for a cause and manner of death ruling from Deputy Chief Medical Examiner Elaine R. Amoresano.
Death was listed as 8:59 a.m. Aug. 16, according to the state death certificate.
Shaun Kastner, a brother, said the family was told that the chief medical examiner’s office wanted to be 100 percent certain for the cause and manner of death before making a final determination.
His brother will be missed, Shaun Kastner told Vermont News First.
“He loved to sing. He loved his kids,” Shaun Kastner said about his brother.
Two of the victim’s children, ages 5 and 6, were living with Kastner in Burlington. Two others, ages 17 and 18, are living in Massachusetts, Shaun Kastner said.
His mother, Teresa Kastner Watford, has created a GoFundMe account in the hopes to generate $10,000 toward the cost of the funeral. It had generated over $1,100 by Saturday toward its initial goal. https://www.gofundme.com/f/help-the-kastner-family-in-their-time-of-need
Burlington Police said it had officers on foot patrol on Church Street on Aug. 11 when they came across the assault in progress with the injured man by City Hall Park.
The three juveniles fled on foot and by bicycle in broad daylight, but the officers were able to chase down the suspects, Police Lt. Mike Henry said.
The three youths, believed to be roughly 14 to 16 years old, are facing proceedings in Vermont Family Court.
Those court proceedings are confidential and have very limited consequences due to the lack of rehabilitation services for youthful offenders within Vermont.
One suspect carried a gun, and police determined it was displayed while they attacked the victim, Henry reported. He said additional arrests were anticipated.
Kastner’s funeral is set for 11:30 a.m. Saturday Sept. 6 at Dwyer-Wellington Funeral Home, 220 East Street, Pittsfield MA.
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