http://rutlandherald.com/article/20140614/NEWS02/706149912
Photo by Eric Francis Leon Jiggetts listens to his lawyer address the court during his arraignment Friday on nine charges, including attempted second-degree murder. Published June 14, 2014 in the Rutland Herald Man denies attempted murder, 8 more charges By ERIC FRANCIS CORRESPONDENT WHITE RIVER JUNCTION — A man pleaded innocent Friday to attempted second-degree murder and other charges related to the shooting of a convicted teenage drug dealer in Springfield this week. Leon Jiggetts, 26, was returned to jail without bail after his pleas in White River Junction criminal court. He denied three more felony charges related to the shooting, including assault and robbery with injury resulting, home invasion, and using a deadly weapon to commit a crime. He also denied five felony charges of selling heroin and crack cocaine in Windham County earlier this year. Police had said he was from Newark, N.J., but his attorney told the court that Jiggetts has lived in Brattleboro for a couple of years. Jiggetts is accused of shooting Joseph Atkinson, 19, a New Jersey resident with the street name “Black,” in the abdomen with a .45-caliber handgun Wednesday afternoon. Atkinson was taken to Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center in Lebanon, N.H., for treatment of a gunshot wound, police said. No information on his condition was available from the hospital Friday. The shooting took place at an upstairs apartment at 47 Summer St. in Springfield. There, Vermont State Police investigators found a .45-caliber shell casing and a spent bullet, Detective Sgt. Richard Holden said in a new affidavit filed Friday. Holden also said when Jiggetts was arrested in Bellows Falls after the shooting, he denied he was ever in Springfield that day. Police have identified two more suspects in the invasion of the apartment: Jabbar Chandler, 33, of Charlestown, N.H., and a 16-year-old male described by police as a known drug dealer from Chester. These two and Chandler’s girlfriend, Amy Scannell of Springfield, all told police Jiggetts was with them when they went looking for Atkinson at the Summer Street apartment belonging to Timothy Carleton and Amanda Booker. The 16-year-old said he’d organized the trip in Scannell’s car because “he wanted to confront Atkinson about spreading rumors about him stealing money from drug deals,” police said. The teen added that he was carrying a baseball bat when they entered the apartment through the unlocked front door, police said. Moments later, Jiggetts cried “There you are!” and shot Atkinson with a long-barreled handgun, the affidavit quoted the boy as saying. Later Wednesday, after the intruders were driven to Bellows Falls by Scannell, police said, a witness saw a “young white male” hiding a baseball bat in bushes near a playground on Church Street. The bat was recovered, police said. Thursday, Jabbar Chandler’s sister, Kathy Chandler, led police to a .22-caliber handgun and a pile of .45-caliber ammunition left beside the Old Springfield Road in Charlestown, N.H “According to Kathy Chandler, she placed those items there after Jabbar Chandler asked to get rid of the gun and ammunition for him,” Holden wrote in the supplemental affidavit. Police said the .22-caliber gun is believed to be the small Beretta that Chandler wrestled away from Carleton moments after Atkinson was shot. Scannell told police Chandler tossed another gun out the window of her car as she drove the trio to Bellows Falls after the shooting. Police have scoured several roads and riverbanks looking for the weapon. Detectives with the Southern Vermont Drug Task Force said they conducted a series of controlled “buys” of drugs from Jiggetts in March. They said Jiggetts made frequent trips to New Jersey on the Amtrak Vermonter train to bring drugs back to the Brattleboro area for sale. Court records show that he is wanted in New Jersey for alleged drug crimes on school properties there, and he has four previous felony drug convictions. Since Vermont is charging Jiggetts as a habitual offender, a conviction on any one of the nine new charges could result in a life sentence. Atkinson pleaded guilty in April to a felony charge of sale of cocaine in exchange for a one year sentence. He was given credit for time served and released.
so my question is,did they find the gun used in the shooting or is it laying on the side of the road someplace
ReplyDeleteI read in one of the articles that the gun was found, I think it said it was found along with drugs on Bridge St not too long after the shooting.
Deletei heard they found a .22 but the gun used in the shooting was a 45 acp,be nice to know if there is a gun laying around in our town,where a kid could find it and hurt themselves or thers
DeleteNot guilty? Why of course!
ReplyDeleteHas the skank from the pizza place been charged with anything?
ReplyDelete^haha! Should be. Shes a discrace
DeleteWhen are the VT courts going to start locking up these scumbags and throwing away the key? Maybe it is time for a state wide march and protest at the capital to show our elected officials that we are tired of the lenient laws and sentences.
ReplyDeleteStuff like this would not be happening if they freed Bolaski!
ReplyDeleteVermont cannot afford to pay the costs of confining the criminals from New Jersey, Ct., MA and other states who migrate to Vermont and commit felonies in Vermont. A person convicted of commiting a felony in a state where he was not born should be sent to the state where he was born to serve his sentence, at that state's expense. Vermont's priority should be to prepare our young people to be productive citizens, not to bear the costs of locking up criminals from all over New England and other states.
ReplyDeleteThese people should be asked to leave Springfield. If they don't them give them a ride back to NJ. But, THEY have the RIGHT to be here. They are not citizens of this town. They fit in like a crow in a flock of robins. DO I have the right to move into some place in south Chicago where I would not fit in ? Sure do. Well Barney what would Andy do ?
ReplyDeleteHave all of you who supported locating a state prison in town finally realized that by having done so, YOU are now the real prisoners!
ReplyDeleteThese people moved here to sell drugs not visit people in the prison...where do you come up with that crap??
DeleteI agree that the prison isn't the only contributing factor, but there are numerous gangs represented in the prison's population. This does lead to more of the same coming to town in the form of families, friends etc. Selling drugs is their main source of income aside from public benefits. The availability of housing makes it easier for these folks to move here, and the State benefits are a known draw for people from other states.
Deleteany felony,should be dealt with by the federal government,they make most of these laws,the feds should be putting these criminal's in federal prisons and paying the cost to house them
ReplyDeleteHa! Haven't you ever heard of "UNFUNDED MANDATES"? The federal government is deaf and dumb to the destruction they wreak via the millions of laws, regulations, and hidden taxes that they impose.
DeleteIt is time to start removing the subsidized housing in town. It is the only thing that will work to save the town. Springfield has too much. We all know this is true. Its time to start taking action.
ReplyDelete@4:40, you are correct in the proliferation of subsidized housing being root of Springfield's ills. Such is the direct result of inept town planning by both a useless town manager and a do-nothing Selectboard. Neither of whom can manage to enforce the minimal zoning we already have to remove derelict buildings.
DeleteAs mentioned before, the solution is to tax Section Eight dwellings as commercial property at a value consistent with its income generating potential. Once the financial incentive to operate slums is removed, they will largely cease to exist. Meanwhile, the tax revenue generated will more fairly subsidize the demands these properties burden our community with.
But I wouldn't hold my breath expecting anything to happen. To use an expression, follow the money. I more than suspect someone in a position of policy is getting their palm greased by slum lords to keep the money faucet turned on.
Very True! The town needs actual planning and management! What % of a town's apartments should be subsidized before you loose a viable tax base? It was a great idea to get rid of the slum lord ordinance huh???
DeleteYou can't "remove" subsidized housing. It's Vermont law. If you are a landlord, you are not permitted to refuse to rent to someone just because their rent is being paid by Section 8. Another genius law from Montpelier.
ReplyDeleteYou can rent to whomever you want. I do. Just find another reason, there are many. Refused to rent to one because he misspelled his occupation.
ReplyDeleteI don't think any of the land lords would refuse it anyway. If they were going to then they would have found a reason other than that to refuse.
ReplyDeleteI don't think any of the people posing these problems are on Section 8 housing. For one thing, there's a waiting period-- last I head it was about two years. For another, Springfield Housing Authority controls most of the Section 8 certificates and is perhaps the most thorough landlord in town about screening. Finally, Section 8 funding has been reduced in the last decade, so there are not the number of certificates there used to be.
ReplyDeleteI think what you have is simply the recognition by hustlers that Springfield is ripe for their particular game, which happens to be drugs. We could change this, you know.