Man allegedly sold heroin by elementary school

A Springfield man is facing felony charges alleging that earlier this year he sold heroin from his room upstairs in a house that sits right next to the entrance to the Union Street Elementary School.

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Springfield man allegedly sold heroin by elementary school Suspect previously convicted of a gas station robbery as a teenager Sunday, July 9, 2017 Eric Francis Vermont News Subscribe WHITE RIVER JUNCTION - A Springfield man is facing felony charges alleging that earlier this year he sold heroin from his room upstairs in a house that sits right next to the entrance to the Union Street Elementary School. Aaron Montgomery Sr., 27, pleaded innocent this week to two felony counts of selling heroin before he was released from the courthouse in downtown White River Junction once he signed for a $5,000 unsecured appearance bond. Springfield Police Detective Ryan Wood said that Montgomery found himself on the radar of the Vermont Drug Task Force back in April when informants were being sent into the Frank and Danielle Garceau residence, which is less than 200 feet from the elementary school, to buy drugs from various individuals residing there. Both Danielle Garceau, 37, and her husband pleaded innocent to numerous drug related charges in May and their cases are still working their way through the court system. Detective Wood said that Montgomery was allegedly present at 33 Union Street during some of the other sting operations targeting the Garceaus and so one of the cooperating informants was used to arrange a set of heroin purchases directly from Montgomery. The informant told detectives that he arranged the alleged transactions directly with Montgomery over Facebook Messenger and then walked up to Montgomery’s second floor bedroom where they reported finding Montgomery in the midst of “bagging up heroin” in small piles from a tray. Detective Wood said on two occasions in April the informant arranged to purchase a “bundle” of ten bags of heroin from Montgomery for one hundred dollars but he wrote that during the second sting operation, which allegedly took place outside a residence on Whitcomb Street in North Springfield, that Montgomery only sold six bags to the contact for sixty dollars, saying that was all he had available at the time. Montgomery faces a maximum potential penalty of up to 35 years in prison if he were to be convicted of the heroin sales charges, 20 years of that time is because drugs were allegedly sold in the school zone. In addition to the new drug dealing charges Montgomery also has several open cases pending against him including a felony count of possession of stolen property that he pled innocent to earlier this year. Advertisement: Content continues below... Curious about DailyUV ad rates? That charge stems from a November incident in which police said they recovered a stolen yellow ATV from a residence in North Springfield where Montgomery was staying. Police said Montgomery claimed to have purchased the $4,000 vehicle for a fraction of that price not realizing it had been stolen the day before. Montgomery also pleaded innocent to leaving the scene of an accident following a rear-end collision in October outside a North Springfield day care where witnesses said he drove off after doing significant damage to the back of a parent’s vehicle. Police said Montgomery, whose license to drive was allegedly suspended at the time, eventually admitted to having been involved when he was arrested a short time later at his home nearby. A year ago, Montgomery pleaded innocent to disorderly conduct and disturbing the peace by making threats over the phone after he was arrested following a fight involving a number of people at the intersection of Park and Union Streets. Police said they found a series of violent, expletive-laden threats had been texted from Montgomery’s phone to other individuals involved in the altercation. While those cases are still working their way toward trial, Montgomery’s previous criminal record includes the March 2009 knife-point robbery of cash and cigarettes from the Midway Mobil Gas Station in North Springfield while he was still a teenager. Before his probation was revoked in that case, Montgomery had been given a partially suspended one-and-a-half-to-five year sentence for assault & robbery with a deadly weapon. At the time, Montgomery also pled guilty to charges of providing false information to police and possession of a depressant. Those other charges stemmed from a separate incident in which Montgomery later admitted he had “busted up” his own face and then filed a fake report saying he’d been robbed when in fact witnesses said it was Montgomery who unsuccessfully tried to steal prescription Percocet pills from residents at a local motel. Aaron Montgomery Sr., 27, is now facing numerous felony charges