Monroe Faces Life Sentence for DeOliveira Murder

VERMONT – In a chilling turn of justice, Richard Monroe, 24, faces life imprisonment for the January 2, 2015 murder of Kevin DeOliveira in Burlington. The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Vermont revealed that Monroe was arrested by ATF agents on June 12, 2017, in Texas.

Monroe stands accused of conspiring with Zachary Hust and others to traffic at least 500 grams of cocaine in Vermont between mid-2014 and the fateful day of DeOliveira’s death. The Superseding Indictment also charges him with carrying firearms, robbing individuals at gunpoint, and ultimately discharging a handgun that led to DeOliveira’s execution-style killing.

DeOliveira, 23 at the time of his death, was enrolled at the University of Vermont. The evidence against Monroe is overwhelming: numerous witnesses tie him to cocaine trafficking, and he confessed to the murder of DeOliveira to a third-party witness. investigators recovered the .22 caliber handgun used in the killing, which belonged to Monroe.

Beyond the cocaine conspiracy, Monroe was also involved in a November 2014 armed robbery at an apartment in Burlington, where he stole marijuana and cash. He was enrolled at Champlain College at the time of these offenses.

The initial appearance of Monroe is set for today at a federal court in El Paso, Texas. A U.S. Magistrate Judge will decide whether he will be released on bail or detained pending trial. There’s also a possibility that his detention hearing could be moved to Vermont, under the custody of the United States Marshals Service.

Assistant United States Attorneys Christina E. Nolan and Paul J. Van de Graaf are prosecuting this multi-agency investigation, led by the Burlington Police Department and the ATF. If convicted of all charges, Monroe faces a mandatory minimum sentence of 35 years, with life imprisonment as the maximum penalty.

RELATED: Rochester Predator Pandey Faces Life Behind Bars

RELATED: Stroudsburg Predator: Stanley Pleads Guilty to Sex & Drug Trafficking