BARRE, Vt. (AP) - A judge rejected a request to throw out a guilty verdict in a Vermont town’s first murder in 100 years.
The evidence shows Jayveon Caballero is guilty of fatally shooting Markus Austin and that the killing was unlawful, Judge Mary Morrissey issued in a decision Wednesday.
Caballero was initially found guilty in November of second-degree murder after he was arrested for shooting Austin in a parking lot in Montpelier in January 2017, the Times Argus reported.
Officials reported the shooting followed a fight hours before at a bar, where witnesses said they saw Austin hit Caballero’s girlfriend. Caballero then waited outside the victim’s apartment before shooting him.
Police said Caballero fled to Florida, where he was arrested in May 2017 and brought back to Vermont.
Charity Clark, the chief of staff at the state attorney general’s office, said in an email Thursday, “We are pleased the Court upheld the jury’s decision and that the jury’s verdict stands.”
Caballero is scheduled to be sentenced in May. He faces life in prison.
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