By Patrick Mcardle
THE RUTLAND HERALD
A Fair Haven woman accused of murdering a Black man in Rutland on June 11 has been charged with a hate crime.
Courtney Samplatsky, 34, pleaded not guilty Thursday in Rutland criminal court to a felony charge of second-degree murder and a felony charge of aggravated assault with a weapon.
According to police, Sincere M. Johnson, 46, of New York City, who was also known as “Corey,” was the victim of a June 11 homicide. Johnson’s body was found on Baxter Street.
Attorney Mary Kay Lanthier, who represented Samplatsky, said she would not object on Thursday to the state’s request to hold Samplatsky, who appeared remotely, without bail.
The hate-motivated crime notice, which was attached to the murder charge, can be applied if the alleged crime is “motivated, in whole or in part, by the victim’s actual or perceived protected category. The modification is unlikely to change the length of any sentence, if Samplatsky is convicted, because murder is already punishable by a presumptive minimum of 20 years in jail and a maximum penalty of life in prison.
Samplatsky was arraigned in Vermont after she and Michael O’Brien, 35, of Fair Haven, were arrested in New Hampshire on June 15.
The Rutland County State’s Attorney’s Office has been granted an arrest warrant for O’Brien on a felony charge of aiding in the commission of a second-degree murder.
On Thursday, Sullivan said by email that O’Brien, like Samplatsky, has waived extradition. Vermont and New Hampshire law-enforcement officers are working to return him to Vermont.
Affidavits supporting the requests for warrants for Samplatsky and O’Brien were available in June but a supplementary affidavit became available on Thursday.
In that affidavit, Detective Tyler Billings, of the Rutland City Police Department, said he met with Samplatsky at a New Hampshire hospital on June 15.
Billings said Samplatsky agreed to speak with him and described an alleged incident in Rutland, at the home of someone she called only “Brad.”
Police said Brad Saldi, 41, was the tenant at the Baxter Street apartment.
Samplatsky told Billings, “I swear to God, we got set up for it too.” She allegedly accused Billings of trying to “stick that on frigging O’Brien because (Samplatsky) had that gun.”
In a separate affidavit, Detective Cpl. Adam Lucia, also of the Rutland City Police Department, said Samplatsky allegedly had a Ruger Model 9E 9mm handgun when she was arrested in New Hampshire on June 15.
According to the newer affidavit, Samplatsky said a “dude and his kid” were leaving when she got to the home where the alleged incident happened.
Lucia wrote in his affidavit that Brent Newton, 48, had spoken with police when they were investigating Johnson’s death. He said he and his son, Matthew Newton, 20, had been at the Baxter Street house and saw Samplatsky shooting at Johnson. Brent Newton told Lucia that Samplatsky looked at him and told him not to leave.
The aggravated assault charge against Samplatsky is based on the allegation that she pointed a gun at Matthew Newton and told him not to leave.
Billings said he asked Samplatsky if she had shot anyone during the night she was at Brad’s, even though she denied she or O’Brien had guns that night.
“She replied, ‘Why would I shoot him?’ Samplatsky then advised, ‘Every n— should die out there.’” She then said, ‘That is a pretty bad thing to say,’” Billings wrote in the affidavit.
Billings said he asked Samplatsky why she had those thoughts. He said she told him it was because “they are out there raping, assaulting, 14-, 12-, 13-year-old girls.”
“I told Samplatsky, ‘I don’t think every African American is out there doing that.’ Samplatsky advised, ‘Every African American in Rutland is,’” Billings wrote in the affidavit.
Billings said he asked Samplatsky if she was “OK” with Johnson being dead. He said she “started to sarcastically cry” and said, “No, I have so much remorse for that guy, it’s so awful.”
Billings said she added “she thinks they (African Americans) should all be gone.”
“Samplatsky advised, “Mike didn’t kill the n— and I didn’t kill the n—,” the affidavit said.
When police spoke to Saldi in June, he told them he rents room in his apartment to Johnson. He said he “knew what ‘Corey’ was doing in his apartment.”
While Saldi said he wasn’t in the apartment at the time that Johnson was shot, he said went there afterward and saw the body.
Lucia said Saldi told them Samplatsky and O’Brien frequently talked about firearms and carried firearms so he did not want to be around them.
“Saldi advised he feels ‘Courtney and Mike’ depict Bonnie and Clyde,” Lucia wrote in the affidavit.
Lucia said police spoke with O’Brien and Samplatsky on June 12. The affidavit said some of the conversation was unclear because O’Brien and Samplatsky were sometimes speaking at the same time and a shower running in the background, which police said they believed was to muffle some of the audio.
They told police that other men, including one who used the street name, “Nine,” one who goes by “SP” and one who goes by “Black,” were involved. The affidavit said all three people are known to police and believed to be involved in selling illegal drugs in the Rutland area.
O’Brien and Samplatsky said they were not involved in shooting Johnson but, at the time they were talking to police, had allegedly fled to New Hampshire because they were in fear for their lives. They also told police that Samplatsky had been sexually assaulted by multiple men on June 12 but said they didn’t know if it was related to the events of the night of Johnson’s death.
The affidavits in the case did not describe a clear motive that would explain why Samplatsky allegedly shot Johnson.
In June, the New Hampshire State Police said they had responded to a post office building in Salisbury after a reported car crash.
Police said they believed Samplatsky and O’Brien had fled the scene of the crash and ran to the post office building where they broke a glass window to get inside.
Samplatsky and O’Brien were arrested after New Hampshire State Police SWAT and Explosive Ordnance Disposal personnel were utilized to clear the post office building.
patrick.mcardle @rutlandherald.com
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