By Alan J. Keays/VTDigger
The Vermont Supreme Court has reversed a lower court ruling and reinstated the nearly 20-year prison term handed down in the high-profile hit-and-run that killed a well-known Rutland County dairy farmer in 2016.
Thomas H. Velde Jr., 49, had challenged his sentence from 2018 through a civil process known as post-conviction relief.
Judge Mary Miles Teachout ruled in November 2023 that in one of Velde’s prior cases — a 2009 trespassing charge — a guilty plea he entered was defective and could no longer be used to treat him as a habitual offender, a sentencing enhancement that came into play in the hit-and-run case.
Velde had pleaded guilty in 2018 in the hit-and-run that killed 57-year-old Leo Branchaud in the April 2016 crash on Gulf Road in Tinmouth. Initially, Velde’s mother tried to take the blame, but police said video cameras from outside the farm revealed that Velde was the driver of the vehicle that fled the scene.
Following Teachout’s ruling that the habitual offender enhancement was improper, the matter of the fatal hit-and-run case was set for a resentencing. Rutland County State’s Attorney Ian Sulllivan, the prosecutor, then appealed Teachout’s ruling to the Vermont Supreme Court.
The Vermont Supreme Court, in a ruling Friday, Dec. 6, overturned Teachout’s decision.
“Based on the record here,” Justice William Cohen wrote in the unanimous ruling, “we conclude that petitioner waived his right to challenge the convictions underlying habitual-offender status under well-established law when he knowingly and voluntarily pled guilty.”
The high court in ruling against Velde on the habitual offender enhancement allows Velde to continue to pursue a separate challenge to his sentence, this time on a claim of ineffective assistance of counsel against his attorney in the fatal hit-and-run case.
Velde was sentenced in 2018 by Judge Cortland Corsones to 19 years in jail after pleading guilty to charges of leaving the scene with death resulting and gross negligent operation with death resulting in the April 2016 fatal crash.
Both charges carried habitual offender enhancements because of Velde’s lengthy criminal record, meaning each could have been punishable by up to life imprisonment.
As part of the plea deal reached after his trial had already started, prosecutors were permitted to ask for a sentence of up to life in prison for Velde, while his attorney was able to argue for any lesser sentence.
Former Rutland County State’s Attorney Rose Kennedy, the prosecutor at the time, asked the judge to impose a sentence of 25 years to life in prison. Velde’s attorney asked for a sentence of 4-20 years.
Sullivan, the current prosecutor, said Monday he was pleased that the sentence against Velde has been reinstated. “When Judge Corsones sentenced Mr. Velde to 19 years to life to serve, Mr. Velde was justly sentenced as a habitual offender for killing Leo Branchaud and fleeing the scene of the crash,” the prosecutor stated in an email.
“I was confident that the trial court made a mistake in the post-conviction relief proceeding; I am grateful that the Vermont Supreme Court corrected that error,” Sullivan added.
Community members around Rutland County have filled the courtroom in Rutland whenever hearings have been held in the case.
Velde is currently serving his prison sentence in the Southern State Correctional Facility in Springfield.
