VERMONT COMPUTERS STOLEN FROM BUSINES AND SCHOOL Brattleboro Reformer - Ex-BCTV volunteer signs plea agreement

Thursday, February 1

BRATTLEBORO -- A local man signed a plea agreement that will send him to jail for 21 months on charges of aggravated assault with a weapon and grand larceny.

Kelly McGowan, 64, of Brattleboro, has been in jail since his arrest in August 2005. He will get credit for his time served, meaning he will likely be out of jail within the next three months.

McGowan pleaded guilty to the two charges in exchange for six to eight years in prison, which was suspended with the exception of 21 months.

McGowan, a former Brattleboro Community Television volunteer, was facing aggravated assault charges after an altercation on Elliot Street led to the stabbing of another man in July 2005.

Police began investigating the stabbing after the man turned up in Brattleboro Memorial Hospital with a 12-inch stab wound in his upper abdomen.

Surveillance footage from the parking garage showed a fight between McGowan, the victim and two women.

The fight began after words were exchanged between McGowan and the victim, whose girlfriend was the sister of McGowan's 23-year-old girlfriend.

At first the victim told police the injury was from a kitchen accident, but a friend later told police about the Elliot Street fight.

Police recognized McGowan from the tape and questioned him.

Just a few months earlier, McGowan had been arrested by Brattleboro Police after is was discovered he stole a computer that was sitting outside an office in the municipal center, where the offices for BCTV are.

The stolen computer was sitting outside the door of Cartographics Technologies and had specialized software on it valued at around $5,000.

Police reviewed surveillance tapes and found that McGowan had walked out of the building with the computer.

After questioning, McGowan turned the computer in to police and stated that he took it because he thought it was garbage.

Two arrested for grand larcency

DUMMERSTON -- Two local men were arrested for grand larceny after the Windham County Sheriff's Department completed on investigation into thetheft of computers from Dummerston Elementary School.

Jarad Stockwell, of Dummerston, and Jaymes Kimball, of Putney, were cited to face the larceny charge in Windham District Court at a later date.