America's Tiniest Capital Sees 1st Murder Since 1920s

Cops say man fled Vermont after Montpelier killing
By Rob Quinn,  Newser Staff
Posted Jan 24, 2017 4:33 AM CST
Updated Jan 24, 2017 4:44 AM CST
State Capital Sees First Murder in Almost a Century
Cary was arrested on drug charges Sunday.   (Vermont State Police)

Police in the country's smallest state capital are investigating something that hasn't happened there in living memory: a murder. Police in Vermont say they have issued an arrest warrant for 29-year-old Jayveon Caballero, who is accused of fatally shooting Markus Austin in Montpelier early Sunday after an altercation, the Times Argus reports. Witnesses told investigators that Austin, 33, assaulted Caballero’s girlfriend, Desiree Cary, during the altercation outside a bar in the nearby city of Barre early Sunday. Police say Caballero later confronted Austin outside his apartment and shot him dead. The body was found in the parking lot of Austin's apartment complex.

A Vermont State Police spokesman says Caballero, who knew Austin before the shooting, fled the town and probably the state after the shooting, WCAX reports. The police spokesman says Caballero is believed to have boarded a Greyhound bus bound for New York City on Sunday morning, which made numerous stops in other states along the way. Later Sunday, Cary, 22, was arrested on apparently unrelated charges of selling heroin and crack cocaine. With around 7,500 residents, Montpelier has the smallest population of any state capital, the AP notes. Police Chief Anthony Facos says this is the city's first murder since a woman shot her husband in the 1920s. (More Vermont stories.)

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