Police Rule Death A Homicide

Police rule death a homicide

Published: July 12. 2005 12:00AM in the Burlington Free Press

By Erica Jacobson
Free Press Staff Writer

Vermont State Police have classified Thursday's shooting death of a 33-year-old Sheldon farmhand as a homicide, the St. Albans barracks announced Monday.

Kenneth Jerome was shot between 11 a.m. and noon Thursday on an East Sheldon Road farm owned by Terrance and Joanne Magnan, according to a written statement issued by police.

Police said Jerome was killed while driving a tractor and feeding cattle near a barn on the east side of the Magnan farm. The single, fatal shot came from a rock ledge to the east that sits on a neighboring property, police said.

Sheldon Town Lister Norbert Larose said Stephen and Shirley Harrness own the several hundred acres directly east of the Magnan farm. A woman who answered the Harrness' home phone Monday evening said there was "no comment" about the police's findings regarding the origin of the shot.

Since Thursday, dozens of state troopers and plainclothes police have collected evidence and interviewed witnesses on the Magnan farm and in neighboring farms in this Franklin County town of 2,200.

Police also obtained search warrants for several properties in the area, police said, and Stephen and Shirley Harrness' tan Cape-Cod style home on East Sheldon Road was one of the locations police visited Friday afternoon.

Police said the search warrants have yielded evidence that has been sent to the Vermont Forensic Laboratory for evaluation.

Police have asked anyone who observed suspicious activity around the time and place of the shooting to call the St. Albans state police barracks at 524-5993.
Contact Erica Jacobson at 660-1843 or ejacobso@bfp.burlingtonfreepress.com.