Vermonter avoids double death penalty trial; accepts life sentences
by Mike Donoghue, Vermont News First, Vermont Business Magazine
A former Stowe resident, who was facing potential death penalty sentences in the fatal shooting of two out-of-state drug dealers, has accepted a plea bargain that will provide him consecutive life terms in prison.
Theodore "Theo" Bland, 30, most recently of Burlington had pleaded not guilty in federal court in December to eight felony charges in his latest indictment, including gunning down the two out-of-state drug dealers at a mobile home at 497 Eden Road in Lowell on Oct. 12, 2023.
The bodies of Jahim “Debo” Solomon, 21, of Pittsfield, MA, and Eric “E” White, 21, of Chicopee, MA, were found about two weeks later in the town of Eden in nearby Lamoille County about a mile apart.
The U.S. Attorney's Office in Vermont, which had the green light from the Justice Department in Washington, D.C. to seek the death penalty, has now taken that off the table.
Under the 13-page signed plea agreement filed Thursday, Bland admits to causing the deaths of both Solomon and White. Both criminal charges carry life sentences.
He also has admitted to carrying a gun during a drug trafficking crime, which calls for a consecutive life sentence, the plea agreement notes.
Bland also has agreed to plead guilty to four other felony gun and drug charges, court records show. They include two counts of possession with intent to distribute fentanyl and crack cocaine and one count of conspiracy to distribute the two dangerous drugs, records show.
He also has agreed to admit possessing a gun while dealing drugs, records show.
No date has been set for the change of plea before Senior Federal Judge William K. Sessions III in Burlington.
Bland was scheduled to have a status conference in the case in May.
Vermont News First initially reported in December 2023 that Bland was the main person of interest in the double homicide. The story, which appeared in multiple newspapers in Vermont and Massachusetts, was based on Vermont News First's own investigation, interviews and court records.
The government eventually used that VNF news story as a court exhibit in seeking Bland’s detention pending trial.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Joshua Turner in his notice for the death penalty, wrote that the government was prepared to show several intent factors justifying the death penalty. They include Bland intentionally killed the victims and intentionally inflicted serious bodily injury that resulted in their deaths.
Turner also noted that among the aggravating factors is Bland's criminal record for using a firearm in the past.
Bland comes from a well-known Stowe family, which includes his father, Richard Bland, a lawyer and a former member of the town school board.
The double homicide is part of a complex interstate drug trafficking ring. At least eight people have been charged in U.S. District Court as part of the case investigated by the Vermont Drug Task Force, State and Morristown Police, and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. Other less involved people have been charged in state court.
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Vermont Business Magazine