Man tied to Rutland shooting jailed
Toolbox
By Brent Curtis Staff Writer - Published: February 6, 2010
Javon Shelton has been sentenced to 20 years behind bars in an Arizona jail for shooting a man in that state.
But the mother of a Schenectady, N.Y., man killed in a shootout in Rutland two years ago, said that punishment isn't enough.
"It's still not a sentence for my son's murder," said Sylvia Morales, whose son Carlos Vasquez was found dead inside 90 Grove St. following what police have described as a drug-related shooting. "He's off the street and that's good. I just hope they have new evidence to convict him of murder in Vermont."
Shelton's role in the infamous 2008 shooting remains unclear although a Rutland detective said Friday they have identified the handgun used to kill Vasquez but his guilt in a September 2008 shooting in Mesa, Ariz., was decided by a jury last year.
On Jan. 29, a Maricopa County Superior Court judge sentenced the 28-year-old to a 20-year prison sentence with the possibility for parole after 17 years incarceration. The sentence Shelton received was only one year shy of the maximum 21-year sentence for attempted murder.
Police in Mesa say Shelton shot and partially paralyzed a 24-year-old man during an argument on a basketball court.
Shelton has never been charged in connection with the fatal shooting on Grove Street in Rutland a shooting that highlighted an escalating and increasingly violent drug war in the city that attracted interest from state and federal officials.
Shelton was shot in the side during a gunbattle inside a downstairs apartment where police have said Shelton and two New York men were arguing over the right to sell crack cocaine from the home.
Vasquez and his friend Ramel Ramos two Schenectady men whom police have said were vying with Shelton for the drug turf were reported by witnesses as the other two participants in the shootout.
Ramos was charged with assault and robbery soon after the shooting. But those charges were eventually dropped and he pleaded guilty to only a misdemeanor charge of marijuana possession.
A .25-caliber handgun was found next to Vasquez' body the same gun that federal prosecutors convicted a Rutland woman of illegally buying for Vasquez.
Several other guns were found either in the house or on the ground near it. For the better part of two years, investigators have said they were awaiting ballistic reports necessary to confirm whether any of the weapons were involved in the shootout.
On Friday, Rutland Detective Ray LaMoria said they have identified two that were including the gun used to kill Vasquez.
LaMoria said ballistics has confirmed that a 9 mm Glock handgun found a "stone's throw" from 90 Grove St. on Library Ave. was the weapon that delivered the fatal round. LaMoria said police haven't been able to trace the origins of the weapon but he said investigators don't believe it belonged to Ramos they found a .38-caliber handgun they believe he used.
"There was a .38 revolver at a fence line where Ramos jumped," the detective said describing the route investigators believe Ramos fled on foot after the shootout. "That's the direction that witnesses said he went."
"We're not at the point where we can put the gun in (Shelton's) hand but we may be able to connect some of the dots. If it does go further, it will come down to circumstantial evidence," LaMoria added.
The detective said he planned to meet with Rutland County State's Attorney Marc Brierre when tests on the evidence were complete.
For Morales and Christine Kenner, the mother of Vasquez' daughter, a resolution to the two-year-old killing can't come soon enough.
"I'm pleased (Shelton) is behind bars and the family down there in Arizona has some closure," Kenner said. "We're still looking for closure ourselves."
brent.curtis@rutlandherald.com
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