Jozsef Piri’s 2nd degree murder case inches toward trial Judge reconsiders but lets earlier decision stand

By Shawn Cunningham
© 2025 Telegraph Publishing LLC

A little more than six years ago, Vermont State Police were called to Route 103 in Rockingham, just south of Lower Bartonsville Road for a welfare check. There they found a produce truck belonging to a company out of Boston.

The driver – Roberto Fonseca-Rivera – was inside, dead from gunshots that came through the truck’s windshield. Today, a Florida doctor who is accused of the shooting is just one step closer to trial. But the timing remains uncertain.

After a two-year investigation, police in December of 2021 arrested Jozsef Piri, then of Connecticut.  The then Londonderry second-homeowner was charged with second-degree murder and extradited to Vermont. He was released on $250,000 bail and the long road to where the trial stands today began.

On Nov. 24, Judge Elizabeth Mann of Windham County Superior Court took another step toward trial. In May of this year, Piri attorney Adam Hescock filed motions to suppress all evidence gained in “unconstitutional searches and seizures of (Piri’s) person, personal property, vehicle, phone, phone records and home.” These searches came from warrants issued by Windham Superior Court Judge John Treadwell and included the second home on Mansfield Lane in Londonderry. Mann took over this phase of the case from Treadwell since he had issued the warrants the defense was questioning.

In a second motion, Hescock asked the court to suppress evidence obtained from an automatic license plate reader operated by the FBI on Interstate 91 in Rockingham. Both motions asked for all evidence derived from the searches and plate reader to likewise be suppressed.

Finally, the defense moved for a dismissal of the charges based on the lack of admissible evidence.

Judge Mann looked at the motions to suppress and the motions opposing them put forward by the Windham County State’s Attorney’s office. On Aug. 28, she issued a decision denying both of Hescock’s motions.

She did not decide on the motion to dismiss because there had to be a determination of what evidence was admissible first.  The prosecution has to show it has sufficient admissible evidence to overcome the motion to dismiss, said State’s Attorney Steven Brown in an interview.

Hescock then filed a motion for Mann to reconsider her decision, citing a number of issues, including that the location of the truck being described by one caller as in Chester rather than Rockingham and one member of the Vermont State Police not including his law enforcement background in the application for the warrant.  In a 13-page denial of the defense’s request, Mann dismissed Hescock’s objections to the warrants based on either law or common sense.

The document was not without a bit of humor as when Mann agreed with the defense that one paragraph of her August decision was not “well-drafted.” She also noted that her use of “arrest warrant” rather than “search warrant” did not alter the larger point she was making.

In the end, Judge Mann said that having reconsidered the arguments made by the defense, her August 2025 denial of the motions to suppress remain in effect, not withstanding minor corrections that she addressed in the text.

What comes next and when is an open question. Mann still has to deal with the Piri motion to dismiss, but with the prosecution’s warrants and therefore a lot of evidence intact, that looks like a steep hill to climb for the defense.

The court calendar for the Windham County Criminal Division currently stretches out through June 25 and the Piri case is not currently on it but a hearing on the Motion to dismiss and a status conference could happen in that amount of time.

Telegraph articles about the shooting and legal proceedings:

• Boston trucker apparently shot dead on Rt. 103
• Driver’s death ruled homicide; police seek video
• Police press for more clues in Rt. 103 homicide
• Police ask public to ID pickup truck
• Police arrest Londonderry 2nd-homeowner in 2019 Rockingham murder
• Murder suspect returned to Vermont, to be arraigned Monday
• Rt. 103 murder suspect to be released on bail
• Judge rejects Piri’s defense subpoena in Rt. 103 murder case
• Prosecutor concerned over ‘lingering’ Rt. 103 murder case