Hasham May Change Plea
In 2004 Fatal Shooting

The second-degree murder case against John M. Hasham, 48, of Brookfield, originally scheduled to go to trial in the Chelsea courthouse this month, appears headed towards a plea-agreement resolution instead.

A clerk at Orange County District Court said this week that a change-of-plea hearing for Hasham is scheduled for tomorrow, Jan. 6.

Hasham was arrested and charged Feb. 25, 2004, one day after he called police to report he had shot his neighbor, 37-year-old David Drown. From the beginning, Hasham had maintained he fired in self-defense; there were no witnesses to the shooting.

The two men had a history of disagreements. Drown, who had lived in a Route 12 rental property next to the Hasham residence, was shot in a shed attached to his rental property. Drown and his wife had recently been evicted from the property, but had not yet removed all their belongings.

According to court records, Hasham told police that he was watching the property for its owner, and walked over, with a loaded handgun in his pocket, when he saw a strange car pull in the drive. Hasham said Drown fired first at him, and then he fired three times in return.

However, prosecutors alleged that forensic evidence suggested that Hasham, who was not injured, was the aggressor in the shooting.

Hasham’s attorney, Dan Sedon, filed a motion, in October of 2004, seeking to have the second-degree murder charge against his client dropped, because the state, Sedon argued, had not proven "beyond a reasonable doubt" that a crime had occurred.

Last February, Judge Amy M. Davenport denied that motion and set a January 2006 trial date.

Sedon this week declined to comment on the case, and Orange County State’s Atty. Will Porter did not return a call. Neither attorney has made any comment on the case since April, 2004, when a district court judge agreed with Sedon’s motion barring both defense and prosecuting attorneys from talking about the case.

The Hasham case has been filled with notable defense motions. In June, 2004, a judge denied Sedon’s motion to reduce Hasham’s bail from $250,000 to $75,000. Sedon then filed a successful appeal to the Vermont Supreme Court, and bail was subsequently lowered. Hasham posted bail and had returned to his Brookfield home.

In a change-of-plea agreement, the accused agrees to plead guilty to a lesser charge. For prosecutors, a so-called plea bargain assures a conviction, something a jury trial does not guarantee. For the accused, the agreement offers an opportunity to resolve a case with a lesser charge and penalty.

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