RutlandHerald.com - We Are Vermont

Man pleads innocent in mall killing

Peggy Munger begged her estranged husband and a man she was having an affair with not to meet each other at the Diamond Run Mall on Monday, according to Vermont State Police.

But her pleas went unheeded and now her husband, 52-year-old Kerry Munger of Benson, is dead, and 34-year-old Trevor Herrick of Clarendon could face life in prison.

“Peggy said that she asked (Herrick) not to go. Peggy said (Herrick) told her that he had to go,” state police wrote in an affidavit released Tuesday. “Peggy said (Munger) told her he had to go and talk with (Herrick) …. Peggy said she told (Herrick) this was stupid and not to go to Sears.”

Later on Monday, as Munger was dying from two stab wounds to his side and back, Herrick allegedly called Peggy Munger and told her he stabbed her husband and “it did not look good.”

After allegedly making the same confession to police, Herrick pleaded innocent to a charge of second-degree murder during his arraignment Tuesday in Rutland District Court.

Herrick, who was jailed after his arrest, was ordered held without bail pending another court hearing Thursday to review evidence in the case.

While Herrick’s composure didn’t waver during the hearing, his family members wept and Shawn Munger, Kerry Munger’s only biological child left the courtroom in tears along with his fiancée. Peggy Munger did not attend Herrick’s arraignment.
Before the hearing began, Shawn Munger predicted he would have a hard time staying calm in the same room with the man who he believes killed his father.

“I’d like to not be here,” he said in the hallway before the hearing. “Just put me in a room with him and I’ll take care of it myself.”

In a state police affidavit filed in court Tuesday, Herrick allegedly told police his affair with Peggy Munger, who he works with, dated back roughly five years and he told police he believed Kerry Munger knew about the relationship for some time.

Herrick never tried to flee the scene Monday nor did he resist police.

Witnesses told police that after Kerry Munger collapsed to the ground, Herrick got into his pickup and then got out and looked at the man on the ground. The witness said Herrick then bent over, picked up Munger’s arm and let it go, falling limply to the ground.

In interviews with Rutland County Sheriff’s Deputy Andrew Cross and state police Detective Sgt. Albert Abdelnour, Herrick talked about events leading up to the stabbing.

Herrick told police he agreed to meet Munger in the mall parking lot — a location where Munger found Herrick and his wife two years ago — to talk about Peggy Munger.

Fearful for his safety, Herrick told police he went home after work to grab a knife and a handgun which police said they found in a case on his front seat.

What happened during their meeting is unclear.

Herrick told police that a verbal confrontation turned physical when Munger pushed his shoulder. At that point, he told police he reached behind his back and grabbed the knife hidden in a sheath under his sweatshirt.

He said he brought the blade around in a broad sweep and stabbed Munger, who was facing him, in the back.

“I didn’t really think about it. He pushed me and I grabbed it. It was almost like it wasn’t in my hand,” Herrick told police.

He told police Munger backed away after he stabbed him, but then charged back in threatening to kill Herrick.

“Then he … said ‘I’m gonna kill you’ and came back at me again and I did it again,” Herrick told Cross.

After the second stabbing, Munger fell to the ground, Herrick said.

In his phone call to Peggy Munger after the incident, the woman told police Herrick said Munger attacked him as soon as he got out of his truck “pushing and hitting him.”

Two witnesses told police the altercation appeared completely verbal until Herrick reached out and struck Munger once in the back and once in the side.

A medical examiner’s report issued Tuesday found that the stab wounds were the sole reason for Munger’s death with one wound piercing his diaphragm and the other piercing his left lung and aorta.

Investigators wrote that Herrick was no stranger to hand to hand combat or the use of a knife. As a former soldier in the U.S. Army, Herrick told police that he learned techniques for fighting in close combat. During a search of Herrick’s home, police also found a manual on close quarters combat and a book on medieval fighting.

Police also found in his home Peggy Munger’s 1977 class ring.
brent.curtis@rutlandherald.com