Feds bust former Waterbury man for drug deal near S.Burlington schools and fatal overdose

November 4, 2025 | By Mike Donoghue | Correspondent

A Chittenden County man has pleaded not guilty to four federal charges, including selling fentanyl within 1,000 feet of two South Burlington schools and with providing the drugs that killed one person and seriously injured another.

Aldrain “Corleone” Ashby, 40, formerly of Waterbury, was ordered held Monday afternoon as a danger to the community and a risk to flee.
Federal Magistrate Judge Kevin J. Doyle said he was concerned by the weight of the evidence and Ashby’s lengthy and violent criminal record. He also noted Ashby’s failure to comply with court orders and probation terms and for committing crimes while under supervision. Doyle noted Ashby’s felony convictions included one for escape.

Montpelier Police arrested Ashby on a federal warrant after getting a tip from U.S. Homeland Security Investigations that he was northbound in a gold Cadillac on Interstate 89 on Sunday afternoon.

Ashby is charged in a four-count indictment that included distributing fentanyl within 1,000 feet of South Burlington High School and the Frederick H. Tuttle Middle School, both on Dorset Street, on June 7, 2024.

He also is charged with distribution of fentanyl on Sept. 30, 2024, to “Victim 1” who later died from an overdose, the indictment says. It notes that his companion, known as “Victim 2,” was seriously injured when the drugs were shared.

The names or initials of the two victims are not identified in court papers.
The other two felony charges are for knowingly and intentionally distributing crack cocaine on Sept. 18, 2024, and Oct. 4, 2024. The locations for those incidents were not provided.

Homeland Security Investigations had alerted area police that Ashby was wanted after a federal grand jury in Burlington returned the four-count indictment last Thursday.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Matthew Lasher said during the arraignment that there were extensive records in the new case, including law enforcement reports, witness statements, photos, surveillance videos, search warrants, and reports from the medical examiner and the hospital concerning the two overdose patients.

Assistant Federal Defender H. Samuel Ansell asked for at least 90 days to investigate the case and consider pre-trial motions. He said his client was willing to not count that time toward the 70-day Speedy Trial Act in federal court.
Doyle set Feb. 2 as the deadline for motions.

Lasher also noted that there is evidence of possession of firearms in the case. Ashby’s criminal record includes multiple felony convictions, which would prohibit him from legally possessing guns.

Ansell said the criminal case could not be as serious as the government maintained if they took more than a year to arrest Ashby for a fatal drug overdose charge.

Lasher countered the claim, noting that sometimes overdose death investigations take time to track down all the relevant evidence, including medical information.

Lasher also noted that Ashby is somewhat elusive, saying that the defendant could not tell Pre-Trial Services the address of where he was living.

Doyle, in denying release, pointed out that there was a lack of other information about Ashby. The judge noted a disagreement as to whether he was born in Guyana or in the Bronx.

The judge said Pre-Trial Services reported Ashby apparently moved to Vermont in 2007 and had worked recently in clothing and shoe stores in South Burlington. He was due to have a job interview at a South Burlington soda company, but he was behind bars, officials said. 

Doyle said Ashby admitted to daily use of marijuana and some use of cocaine. 

While living in Waterbury in May 2022, Ashby was arrested on a variety of charges, including two counts of aggravated domestic assault with a weapon for pointing a firearm at his then-girlfriend and for threatening her life, Vermont State Police said. 

He also faced other charges from the case for resisting arrest, criminal threatening, reckless endangerment, cocaine possession and narcotic possession, records show.

Troopers responded to the Kneeland Flats Trailer Park and Ashby fled on foot and went into a home, where he slammed the door on the police, Trooper Jacob Fox said at the time. Ashby could not hold the door closed, so he ran into the bathroom and tried to flush drugs down the toilet, but Fox and Trooper Paul Pennoyer had a skirmish with him, police said.  Ashby then struck Pennoyer, police said. 

Troopers found a balled-up plastic baggie in the toilet with pills and a white substance, court records noted. The white substance tested positive for cocaine, and the 70 pills were initially believed to be oxycodone, but might have been homemade pills containing fentanyl, police said at the time.

Ashby initially refused to talk to police, but when told the drugs had been found, he reported they were for personal use and he was not a drug dealer, the Times Argus newspaper reported.

The victim said Ashby had choked her on May 25, 2022, and put a gun to her temple the next day, but denied the gun was used on her a few days later when the state troopers responded, Fox said in court papers.     

Ashby eventually agreed to plead guilty to pointing the gun at his girlfriend and for assault on a state trooper, records show.  

Then-Washington County State’s Attorney Rory Thibault said Ashby’s victim balked at helping the prosecution, so the plea agreement led to four felony charges being dropped, along with two misdemeanors. 

Judge Kevin Griffin agreed to impose a prison term of 119 to 120 days in prison.  His defense lawyer, Avi Springer, said Ashby hoped to serve his sentence and move out of state, the Times Argus reported.