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Police: Dying man begged for help after being shot
Bail is set at $25,000 for accused shooter
September 7, 2005

By DANIEL BARLOW Southern Vermont Bureau

BRATTLEBORO — A Jacksonville man who was shot after being mistaken for a bear asked his alleged killer to call police and get him medical attention, prosecutors said Tuesday.

Douglas Bartlett, 50, was shot early Saturday evening while he was picking berries in the woods of Whitingham. Prosecutors say his killer, who fled the scene after the shooting, is Brian D. Gilbert.

"He left the scene after the killing and after talking with the victim," said Windham County Deputy State's Attorney David Gartenstein in Brattleboro District Court Tuesday. "He did not seek help."

Gilbert, 26, of Charlemont, Mass., pleaded innocent to a felony charge of second-degree murder and was held on $25,000 cash bail following the arraignment. He faces the possibility of life in prison if convicted.

Police said Gilbert thought Bartlett was a bear when he shot him once in the shoulder with a .30-30 Marlin lever-action rifle off of Lone Pine Road. The bullet traveled through Bartlett's chest cavity and punctured both lungs, according to an autopsy conducted over the weekend.

Gilbert briefly spoke with Bartlett, before the victim "exhaled and fell backwards from his knees" and died, according to court documents.

"The defendant did speak with (Bartlett) very briefly after the shooting," said State Police Detective Sgt. William Jenkins on Tuesday. "(Bartlett) asked him for help, he asked him to call 911."

Gilbert, who has been held at the Springfield prison since his arrest Sunday, walked into the courtroom Tuesday with his legs and arms shackled. He wore a gray T-shirt and pants and appeared not to have shaved in several days.

He hung his head low throughout the court proceedings, looking up only when the judge was speaking. He conferred briefly with his public defender, but did not address the court.

Several members of Bartlett's family declined to comment following the arraignment. Bartlett, an active member of local school boards who ran a family construction business, grew up in Whitingham and graduated from Whitingham High School. He had three daughters.

According to court documents, Gilbert spent Saturday hunting in the Whitingham woods with his younger brother. Sometime between 5 and 6 p.m., the two saw what appeared to be an animal in some bushes; Gilbert allegedly aimed through his scope and fired, police said.

Gilbert later told police that before he fired, he heard what sounded like a bear and thought he saw the animal's head lift up in the vegetation and sniff the wind, according to court documents.

"He advised that he heard a moan, and was initially excited because he thought he shot a bear," Jenkins wrote in his affidavit. "He advised that he started running toward the direction he shot and heard a person asking for help."

The brothers panicked, ran back to their truck and drove home, according to court documents.

Gilbert and his brother returned to the scene around 10 p.m. to see if the body was discovered yet and fled again when they saw state troopers there, court documents state. An uncle alerted Massachusetts police Sunday that one of his nephews had shot someone while hunting in Vermont.

Bartlett's father reported him missing around 9:30 Saturday night. The body was discovered shortly after 11 p.m. in some bushes near his car, police said.

Police found a Winchester .30-30 casing believed to be from Gilbert's weapon about 21 yards from where Bartlett's body was discovered, according to court documents.

Gartenstein said Tuesday that Gilbert was 60 to 70 feet away from Bartlett, in daylight, when he fired. The deputy state's attorney said that distance was the same length of the courtroom in Brattleboro from one diagonal corner to the other.

Citing no ties to Vermont and the possibility of life in prison as a possible reason to flee, Gartenstein asked that Gilbert be held on $100,000 cash bail.

His court-appointed public defender, Mimi Brill, said the Massachusetts towns that Gilbert lives and works in are close to the Vermont border. He also has a 6-year-old daughter and another child on the way, she said.

Gilbert lives with his mother and several siblings and works as a carpenter, Brill said. Two uncles are former law enforcement officials, she added, including one who is a retired Vermont State Police trooper.

"The family is still struggling to get the $10,000 bail together from when he was arrested," she said. "This is not a family of great means. These are working people."

Judge Kathleen Hayes set bail at $25,000 cash. She pointed out that Gilbert's home is close to the state line and he did cooperate with police after his arrest.

Jenkins, the State Police detective, said he is still investigating the shooting. He would not say what aspects of the case are being reviewed or if further charges are being considered.

"We need to cover all our bases, but I can't really comment on the specifics of that," he said.

Contact Daniel Barlow at daniel.barlow@rutlandherald.com.

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Originally posted by Kamo Gari:
"While this type of thing is a real shocker to most of us, that they would shoot someone by mistake and then run even after being asked for help.... I would expect to see more of that in Massachusetts than any other part of the country...

Don't ask me why, that most of those in the surrounding states are more socially responsible than in Massachusetts... but it seems so.. even in New York...They are not all like that, but way too many are...

I would not be surprised to see this guy get off on this crime...The bail set already is indicative of life in Massachusetts...."

_____________________________________________

I'm curious as to exactly when you lost touch with reality. Care to state what source (any source) of data is as far as your bogus generalities? Oh, you have nothing other than your opinion based in...your opinion? Big surprise!

That kind of blanket statement is so far off the wall it's beyond contempt. As a New Englander and Bostonian, I'm here to say you're way off base with your comments. To say that Kennedy and Kerry suck, hey, I'm in total agreement, as are most of the people I talk to and call friends. I also would agree that many here aren't as prone to even say 'hello' to a stranger on the street, one thing among countless others I lament. But such is life here, and I do see folks all the time giving a seat to a pregnant or elderly person, helping those stuck on the highway or in a snowbank, checking in on old folks, donating time and money to all manner of charity and drives (food, cancer, disaster relief--we are landing hundreds of refugees on the Cape from the stricken areas down south as we speak, for example) and all sorts of stuff that good people do for one another. And while this ain't exactly a place where a stranger can rap on someone's door in the middle of the night and get directions and a cup of coffee, we have our healthy share of fine, upstanding, socially responsible people. That bastard who killed the berry picker wasn't one of them, and he'll get 20 years plus to think about that.

I was very put-off by your statements, as you can see. Now state your sources--a study or somesuch would suffice--otherwise get out a fork and start eating your bullshit statement. It is, after all, just a plate of exactly that, from another hater who couldn't handle living in a place for whatever reason, and left. Right?

Your statement in the beginning of your fantasy says it all: "don't ask me why, but.."

I'll tell you why you started with that: because you're freaking clueless and what you said has NO BASIS IN FACT!

Man, some people just can't hate enough, can they?

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Sorry, but as a person who grew up in Virginia, Metro DC area, don't ask me why, but people in Mass and especially Boston, seem to think that they are the center of the universe and the center of enlightenment...

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I also remember as a freshman in college, how many people in Boston actually thought I was a member of the KKK...What did they base that on?...
[QUOTE/]

Probably based in a simple and incorrect assumption that since klansmen represent a collective negative in the intelligence department, and there you were with you mouth open and your belly rumbling and proving to all what a dolt you were, well, it's not *that* far of a stretch. By the way, I'm STILL not buying this bullshit diversionary tactic either, mentioning the klan and a criminal act of TK some 40 years ago. Get back and address the fucking *original statement* you made and back it up, that people from MA are more likely to shoot someone and then run away than in any other place.

[QUOTE]

IS THAT THE KIND OF FACTS YOU WERE LOOKING FOR???????

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You don't have to 'hate' someone to think they are a dink....But then you Bostonians sort of like to act like everyone in the world hates others..

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I have traveled all over the US and Canada in 53 yrs of life...

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The place that I have to give the honors of most of their population being CLUELESS has to go to BeanTown.....are.. ARE THEY?????

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Originally posted by Old Cane:
I don't have a dog in this hunt and fully expect to get called names for poking my nose in here but Gari, I don't think any of this is called for in a reloading forum.

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I for one will stay away from MA. I didn't know you people up there could even own guns.

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BUT I have always wondered why the folks from one state would repeatedly elect the likes of barney frank, ted kennedy and john kerry????

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Originally posted by Kamo Gari:
VG's reasoning and calm, levelheadedness has me losing steam, damn it...

Seafire, I took humbrage at your painting all MA folks with the same brush, a dangerous and almost always deadly tact for any argument. I am as saddened and enraged as any responsible hunter and citizen, at what these guys are accused of. And I fully admit that this is not always a bread basket type love thy neighbor state. It's still where I call home, and am damn proud to be from. Not all of us are the heartless and ill-raised heathens that you first went on about. *That* was my gripe.

Though it does occur to me now that I perhaps haven't done much to improve anyone else's opinion of us. We can certainly be a bunch of crass, arrogant and pompous fuckers. There, do we meet half way now?

Cheers, all.

KG