Mbyayenge “Robbie” Mafuta, the young man accused of killing his prison cellmate following a mental health episode in 2022, took a plea deal on Thursday that will likely keep him behind bars for six more years.
Mafuta pleaded guilty in a St. Albans courtroom to voluntary manslaughter and aggravated assault in exchange for a 15- to 30-year prison sentence, with all but eight years suspended. Mafuta will receive credit for the roughly two years he has already spent in prison.
The state initially charged Mafuta with second-degree murder for beating 55-year-old Jeff Hall, of Burlington, inside the cell they shared at Northwest State Correctional Facility. The December 2022 attack, which took place shortly after prison staff returned Mafuta to general population from mental health segregation, left Hall in a coma; he died months later.
Mafuta’s public defenders had been pursuing an insanity defense, which has not succeeded at trial in Vermont in living memory. Mafuta, 23, lives with a serious mental illness and was homeless in Burlington until a series of property crimes eventually landed him in prison. He killed Hall while awaiting trial on those charges.
Mafuta’s path — from a charismatic immigrant teenager to a troubled young man suffering from hallucinations, paranoia and inadequate care — was the subject of a Seven Days cover story last year.
Related
A Young Man’s Path Through the Mental Health Care System Led to Prison — and a Fatal Encounter
Wearing green prison clothes, Mafuta entered his guilty plea before an empty courtroom gallery on Thursday morning. He admitted to punching and kicking Hall after confronting him for allegedly stealing other inmates’ items — something Mafuta had told a psychiatrist by phone in the days following the attack, Seven Days previously reported.
Franklin County State’s Attorney Bram Kranichfeld, who became the county prosecutor shortly after the murder case was filed, told Judge Alison Arms that Mafuta will spend 25 years on probation after his release from prison.
“The state recognizes that there is a strong component in this case of mental health, mental illness,” Kranichfeld said. “Part of the sentence here is crafted to address that.”
Specifically, Mafuta will be required to participate in outpatient mental health treatment and anger management counseling, among other conditions.
Kranichfeld also told the judge that members of Hall’s family support the plea deal and plan to attend a future sentencing hearing. Hall’s family has sued the private medical contractor that was responsible for treating Mafuta while incarcerated, claiming VitalCore Health Strategies clinicians did not properly assess Mafuta’s mental health before allowing him to return to the cell with Hall.
Arms provisionally accepted Mafuta’s guilty plea, which will be reviewed at a sentencing hearing that will be scheduled in the coming weeks.
Both Kranichfeld and Mafuta’s court-appointed attorney, Paul Groce, declined to comment on the case until the sentencing hearing takes place.
Thursday’s hearing came less than a week after Mafuta and another prisoner in St. Albans were briefly taken to the hospital for a possible drug overdose. That incident was reported by freelance journalist Mike Donoghue, who cited unnamed sources. A Department of Corrections spokesperson said on Thursday that the agency is still investigating the incident but does not dispute Donoghue’s account.
Mafuta has separately resolved numerous cases in Chittenden County for which he was being detained when he attacked Hall. Last month, prosecutors there agreed to dismiss seven cases against Mafuta in exchange for a guilty plea to one count of unlawful mischief. That charge was related to an incident in which he destroyed the door handle of a car parked outside a homeless shelter.
The Chittenden County plea agreement calls for up to six months in prison, which Mafuta will serve concurrently with the Franklin County manslaughter sentence.
Mafuta will also be ordered to pay restitution to victims in all of the dismissed cases, court records indicate.
Related Stories
A Young Man’s Path Through the Mental Health Care System Led to Prison — and a Fatal Encounter
Got something to say?
Send a letter to the editor and we'll publish your feedback in print!