Six Suspects in Vermont Kidnapping Case Remain in Custody

Six people charged in connection with a January kidnapping in Claremont, N.H., remained in custody as of April 6, a Windsor County District Court hearing confirmed.

The youngest defendant, Jessenialyz Jones, 18, appeared before the court that Monday to ask that she be moved into a general population unit after being isolated from other inmates because of her age. Jones had been transferred from Chittenden Regional Correctional Facility in South Burlington to appear at Windsor County District Court in White River Junction.

Jones pleaded not guilty on Jan. 26 to six felony charges: four kidnapping counts and two assault counts. The kidnapping charges covered two victims and involved allegations of bodily injury, fear, and ransom. The assault charges included aggravated assault and aggravated assault with a weapon.

Police allege Jones was a main perpetrator of specific attacks on the victim. According to the police affidavit, the victim identified Jones as the person who burned her with a hot blade, waterboarded her with hydrogen peroxide, and struck her repeatedly during the roughly three-week ordeal.

The case began on Jan. 1, when the victim went to meet Nicole Palardy, 36, in Claremont to buy cocaine. Instead, police say, the group drove her against her will to Springfield, Vermont, where she was held captive in a basement at 950 Randall Hill Road. Her captors accused her of stealing $8,000 from them and began contacting people on Facebook, including her ex-boyfriend, demanding payment. That ex-boyfriend called police.

On Jan. 25, Springfield Police followed a phone ping to the Randall Hill Road address and ordered all occupants outside. Five people were arrested that day. A sixth arrest followed the following week.

A second victim was also restrained for a shorter period during the captivity after the group suspected she was connected to the missing money.

All six defendants pleaded not guilty. Public defenders representing the suspects are weighing whether to coordinate their filing deadlines, since evidence and witnesses may apply across all six cases, according to court proceedings reported by VTDigger.

Emily Zukauskas, Windsor County Deputy State’s Attorney, appeared at the April 6 status conference.

White River Junction sits about 45 minutes south of Hanover along I-91, and Windsor County District Court handles a wide range of criminal matters for the region. The Springfield address where police say the victim was held sits roughly 20 miles north of White River Junction on Route 11.

The Vermont Department of Corrections has faced ongoing scrutiny over how it houses younger defendants, and Jones’s request to leave isolation reflects a tension between protecting younger inmates and managing them within the general population.

“The public defenders representing the defendants are considering coordinating their filing deadlines,” Zukauskas said during the hearing, according to court records, noting that overlapping evidence could shape the timeline for all six cases.

Jones, a Massachusetts resident, didn’t get a ruling on her housing request at the April 6 appearance. The case is moving through Windsor County court as prosecutors and defense attorneys work out the scope of shared evidence.

The victim’s account, detailed in the police affidavit, describes a 24-day period of abuse that included multiple forms of physical torture and psychological pressure. Palardy, named as the person who initially lured the victim from Claremont, is among the six defendants still in custody.

No trial dates have been set for any of the six defendants.