Carroll Peters was arrested for murder after his ex-wife died in 1993

HYDE PARK — While arguing that Carroll Peters should be held without bail on a first-degree murder charge, a prosecutor told a Vermont judge Friday that he killed his ex-wife “execution-style” more than 30 years ago in Morrisville.

Peters, 70, appeared by video from the Northeast Regional Correctional Facility for his arraignment on murder charges in the September 1993 death of Cheryl Peters, 42. He has been held at the St. Johnsbury prison since his arrest Thursday by Vermont State Police and Morristown police.

Friday’s proceedings marked the latest twist in a more than three-decade series of police investigations and court proceedings into the death of Cheryl Peters and the search for the person responsible for her murder.

“This was an execution-style murder while the victim was sleeping,” Lamoille County Prosecutor Aliena Gerhard told Judge Rory Thibault during Friday’s hearing as she pushed to keep Carroll Peters in custody while the case against him is ongoing.

“It was Cheryl Peters’ estranged husband of three years who stalked her for months when she tried to leave him and (he) executed her,” Gerhard added.

Carroll Peters, through his attorney Kirk Williams, has pleaded not guilty to the murder charge, which, if convicted, could carry a possible life sentence.

Williams had asked for his client’s release on conditions, saying Carroll Peters posed no flight risk.

Carroll Peters, although the subject of past investigations for his alleged role in his ex-wife’s death, continued to reside in the Morrisville community for decades and continued to work at his surveying business in town, the defense attorney said.

A grand jury convened in Lamoille County recently returned the indictment against Carroll Peters for first-degree murder, which was announced Thursday by the Vermont State Police.

Williams told the judge Friday that it was difficult to assess the strength of the prosecution’s case against his client because the murder indictment was returned by a grand jury, meaning all evidence related to the case was heard behind closed doors.

“The court is not in a position to make a sufficient assessment of the weight of the evidence,” the defense lawyer said.

“The State may have just alleged a number of facts, your Honor,” Williams added, “but there is no affidavit or evidence before the court that shows that any of them are based on admissible evidence at this point.”

Judge Thibault sided with the prosecutor and ordered Peters held without bail, calling it a “unique procedural position” since grand juries are “rarely” convened in Vermont.

The judge said that for a grand jury to issue an indictment, there must be a “substantial body of evidence,” justifying his decision to order Carroll Peters held without bail, at least for now. Thibault asked that a hearing be set for next week to consider the weight of the evidence.

According to court documents, Carroll and Cheryl Peters married in July 1990 and separated in January 1993. She was fatally shot in a Morrisville home where she lived in September 1993, and her body was found on a couch in the residence.

Although no prior criminal charges were filed against Carroll Peters in connection with the murder, he was convicted in 2001 of two misdemeanor counts of lewd conduct with his wife in the weeks before her death, according to a 2004 Times Argus report.

In 1996, Cheryl Peters’ five children and her estate filed a civil lawsuit against their stepfather, Carroll Peters, for involuntary manslaughter, sexual assault and battery, according to court documents. But a trial judge dismissed the involuntary manslaughter claim because the statute of limitations had “passed,” according to court documents.

A judge, however, refused to dismiss the sexual assault and battery claims, according to court documents, and after a trial, a jury awarded $605,000 in damages to Cheryl Peters’ estate, which was later upheld by the Vermont Supreme Court on appeal.

Gerhard, the prosecutor, said after Friday’s hearing that there was no new evidence related to the case that led to Carroll Peters’ arrest Thursday.

“Nothing has changed in my opinion,” Gerhard said. “We had a grand jury, we presented the case to the community.”

She added: “We felt that given the age and seriousness of this case, we wanted the community to speak out and hopefully charge him, which they did.”

Two cold case investigators have worked on the case in recent years, the prosecutor said.

Gerhard was appointed by Gov. Phil Scott to serve as Lamoille County State’s Attorney in June.

She joined the office in 2021 as an assistant district attorney. “I can’t speak for my predecessors, but for me, I had to get justice for this family. It’s been too long,” Gerhard said Friday.

Cheryl Peters’ niece, Tracy Boyd, attended the hearing Friday and spoke outside the courthouse after the proceedings.

“It’s surreal,” Boyd said of Carroll Peters’ first-degree murder charge in his aunt’s death. “We’ve been waiting 31 years for this to happen.”