BURLINGTON, Vt. (AP) - A former Montpelier man has pleaded guilty to robbery and arson charges from a 2015 incident where a woman died after being doused in gasoline and caught in a burning house.
The U.S. Attorney for Vermont says 34-year-old Jonathan Zampieri faces a potential life sentence for the arson charge and up to 20 years in prison for the robbery.
Authorities say Zampieri and several others were attempting to rob people who sold them drugs by dousing them in gasoline and threatening them with lighters. In December 2015, the Northfield home of Efren Serrano, who was selling crack cocaine, caught on fire in one of the robberies. Serrano’s girlfriend Brittany Burt, identified by authorities as an innocent bystander, died in the fire.
Zampieri’s four co-defendants are awaiting trial.
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