A jury has convicted a former Connecticut man of murder in the death of a Northeast Kingdom man nearly six years ago.
Brownswell Cedano, 31, was found guilty of second-degree murder on Friday in Orleans County Superior Criminal Court in Newport. The charge stems from the death of 37-year-old Richard Poginy of Glover in November 2019 in Barton.
The verdict followed a six-day trial.
According to charging documents, Cedano, then a resident of Hartford, Connecticut, assaulted Poginy outside a Barton home on Nov. 2, 2019, and fled the scene. Poginy then drove away and crashed his vehicle a short distance away at low speed. He died a week later at Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center in Lebanon, New Hampshire.
Initially, police did not classify the death as a homicide. But after an autopsy and further investigation, a medical examiner ruled the cause of death as “complications of blunt impact head injuries” and the manner as homicide. The medical examiner noted that the minor vehicle damage and lack of airbag deployment suggested a low-speed collision inconsistent with the severity of the head injuries.
A sentencing date has not been set. The conviction carries a sentence of 20 years to life in prison.
Orleans County State’s Attorney Farzana Leyva, whose office prosecuted the case, declined comment Monday. Cedano’s attorney, Michael Shane, could not be reached.
Cedano was sentenced in November 2022 to seven years in federal prison for drug distribution in Rutland County. He was among four people arrested in November 2020 after a raid on a Rutland City apartment where police seized cocaine, fentanyl, illegal prescription drugs and four firearms. Federal prosecutors said Cedano was also trafficking heroin and cocaine in Orleans County while on probation for a Connecticut drug offense.
As of Monday, Cedano was listed as incarcerated at the Northern State Correctional Facility in Newport.
Originally reported by VTDigger.
Photo: KATRIN BOLOVTSOVA via Pexels. Photo is illustrative and not from the scene.
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