Case Title: State v. Bristol

Citation: 

Docket Number: 

State: vermont

Court: Vermont Supreme Court

Date: 1992-04-01T00:00:00Z

Document:
NOTICE:  This opinion is subject to motions for reargument under V.R.A.P. 40
 as well as formal revision before publication in the Vermont Reports.
 Readers are requested to notify the Reporter of Decisions, Vermont Supreme
 Court, 109 State Street, Montpelier, Vermont 05609-0801 of any errors in
 order that corrections may be made before this opinion goes to press.


                                 No. 91-314


 State of Vermont                             Supreme Court

                                              On Appeal from
      v.                                      Rutland Superior Court

 Michael Bristol                              April Term, 1992



 Frank G. Mahady, J.

 Jeffrey L. Amestoy, Attorney General, and Phillip J. Cykon, Assistant
   Attorney General, Montpelier, for plaintiff-appellant

 Nicholas L. Hadden, St. Albans, for defendant-appellee



 PRESENT:  Allen, C.J., Gibson, Dooley, Morse and Johnson, JJ.



      JOHNSON, J.    The State appeals a superior court order granting
 petitioner post-conviction relief in the form of a new trial because he was
 denied effective assistance of counsel during the plea bargaining phase of
 his trial for second-degree and felony murder.  We reverse and remand.
      In 1980, petitioner was charged by information with two counts of
 first-degree murder and two counts of felony murder in connection with the
 shootings of the Vances, an elderly brother and sister, at their Danville
 farm.  After dismissing the information because defense counsel, Edwards
 O'Boyle, successfully suppressed petitioner's confession, the State granted
 immunity to one juvenile accomplice and plea bargained with another in ex-
 change for testimony against petitioner.  A grand jury subsequently indicted
 petitioner for the first-degree murder of Marguerite Vance and the felony
 murder of Levi Vance.
      In 1981, a jury convicted petitioner of both charges, and he was
 sentenced to concurrent terms of twenty-five years to life imprisonment.
 This Court affirmed the convictions in 1983.  State v. Bristol, 143 Vt. 245,