A judge ordered this week that a Lamoille County murder trial will be delayed following a mix-up over evidence disclosure.
Seth Brunell was scheduled to stand trial next week on a charge of second degree murder. He is accused of killing Fern Feather, a transgender woman, in Morristown in April 2022. But after the prosecution failed to provide the defense with a 3D crime scene model, a judge ruled the trial would be postponed.
Lamoille County Superior Court Judge Mary Morrissey declined the defense’s efforts to exclude the model as evidence or dismiss the case entirely. She did, however, allow the defense a “continuance” of the trial in order to “retain an expert who could analyze” the crime scene model and “potentially rebut” the state’s expert witness.
Jessica Burke, Brunell’s attorney, requested the trial be delayed until spring 2025. Morrissey granted the request, though the trial timeline will likely be determined later this month and is subject to change.
Last week, the disclosure issue came to light in an evidentiary hearing as Lamoille County State’s Attorney Aliena Gerhard, who’s prosecuting the case alongside Assistant Attorney General Sophie Stratton, revealed the state had mistakenly not shared a 3D crime scene model with the defense.
Judge Morrissey, in a 15-page decision issued Monday, found that though the defense had not received the modeling, it was aware of the model’s existence. She also wrote there was no ill intent in the state’s failure to provide the model.
Still, Morrissey chided the prosecution, writing, “the court neither minimizes nor excuses the failure of the State to explicitly disclose the (3D) model and raw data to Defendant.”
Morrissey did, however, sanction the state for failing to punctually disclose a letter Brunell wrote in prison that was obtained by Vermont State Police in Aug. 2023. Prosecutors disclosed the letter last month, court records indicate, but Morrissey determined the late disclosure constituted a violation, and she ruled the state could not bring the letter as fevidence in Brunell’s trial.
In the letter, Brunell allegedly described a ploy to have sex with his attorney and accuse her of assault in order to get his case thrown out, according to court documents.
Brunell pleaded not guilty to the murder charge in April 2022. He has been held without bail since.
According to investigators, witnesses reported that Brunell and Feather had been spending time together since meeting each other while Brunell was hitchhiking a few days before the killing.
On April 12, 2022, Brunell used Feather’s cell phone and called the victim’s friend, telling that person he had killed Feather, according to investigators.
Morristown police officers arrived minutes later and found Feather lying face up and bloody on the side of the road and Brunell sitting in the car.
Brunell, according to the charging documents, told officers Feather had attacked him after making a sexual advance, which Brunell said he had rejected because he “wasn’t gay.” Officers reported that Brunell showed no “indications of an altercation,” the filing stated.
Feather’s killing led to an outpouring of grief and condemnation across Vermont, with advocacy groups and the state’s top officials calling for an end to transphobic rhetoric.
The year prior, Gov. Phil Scott signed a law banning the LGBTQ+ “panic” defense, a legal strategy in which suspects justify violence by citing their victims’ sexual or gender identity.
In addition to the murder count against him, Brunell was charged with attempting to escape from the St. Johnsbury prison in April 2023.
Read the story on VTDigger here: Seth Brunell murder trial delayed after evidence mix-up.