The Lebanon man suspected of killing a state trooper in Norwich pleaded innocent to all charges pressed at a court hearing Thursday: grossly negligent operation of a vehicle, leaving the scene of an accident with death resulting, attempting to elude an officer and possession of marijuana and cocaine.
Lacking the $300,000 in cash bail needed to be released from prison, Eric Daley, 23, has since been incarcerated at the Southeast State Correctional Facility in Windsor, Vt., for his involvement in a fatal hit-and-run accident June 15, according to the Vermont State Police.
Police believe Daley swerved his 1991 Nissan coupe into Vermont state trooper Michael Johnson in an attempt to avoid a set of tire spikes set up as a roadblock on a stretch of Interstate 91 two miles north of Hanover. Minutes before, Daley had fled from police after being pulled over for speeding in the nearby town of Thetford.
Daley then escaped by canoe across the Connecticut River to elude law enforcement authorities. After landing in New Hampshire, he traveled south through New England and the mid-Atlantic states, alternating between walking and hitching rides, before his capture Tuesday morning at an Appalachian Trail outpost in Slateford, Pa., by police enlisted in a nationwide manhunt.
Police accuse Daley of having stored three shrink-wrapped bags of marijuana and a small bag filled with cocaine in a backpack inside his car. When pulled over for driving over the speed limit, he was on his way to sell drugs, according to state officials.
"What began as a routine motor vehicle stop ... ended in tragic consequences for Sgt. Michael Johnson," said deputy state attorney Rhonda Sheffield Thursday in Vermont District Court.
A visibly distraught Daley -- whose criminal record began six years ago at age 17 -- did not speak during the hearing, even when presiding judge Theresa DiMauro told him that convictions on the five charges he faces could result in a 36-year imprisonment.
In two days Daley had traversed over 350 miles before Pennsylvania state troopers located him on some of the most rugged terrain of the Appalachian Trail, in the northeastern part of the state. When the four officers found Daley, he simply sat down and waited, authorities said.
"He just started sobbing as soon as he realized who we were," trooper Shawn Hilbert told the Associated Press yesterday. "He was saying how he was sorry. He basically just sobbed the whole time he was with us."
Hilbert and his colleagues from the Pennsylvania State Police, along with hundreds of other police officers from across the nation, attended Johnson's funeral services in Bradford on Friday.
Johnson, 39, lived in Bradford with his wife Kerry, and three children. In addition to serving as a state trooper, he ran Magic Mike DJ, a small-scale disc jockey company.
Johnson was the first Vermont State Police officer to be killed while on duty by another person.
