Plea delayed in 2005 murder-for-hire case

By James A. Kimble
Staff writer

May 10, 2008 12:11 am

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BRENTWOOD, N.H. — A hearing for a Las Vegas contractor expected to plead guilty to his role in the 2005 killing of Derry resident Jack Reid was put off at the last minute yesterday afternoon.

State prosecutors and a lawyer for Joseph Vrooman, 51, went to Rockingham County Superior Court yesterday and met behind closed doors — instead of moving forward with the hearing.

The reason for the delay was unknown yesterday.

Vrooman has been jailed since November 2006 on a charge of conspiracy to commit murder.

He is accused of helping multimillionaire businessman John "Jay" Brooks with plotting Reid's murder in the spring of 2005, then preventing Reid, 57, from escaping from a horse barn where he was trapped by a group of men.

Vrooman is viewed as a potential witness in Brooks' capital murder trial, set to begin in August.

Brooks, 55, of Las Vegas, is facing the death penalty for allegedly orchestrating the murder-for-hire plot to kill Reid, and arranging his kidnapping at a Deerfield horse farm. Brooks is a Derry native who founded Poly-Vac Inc., a medical supply company.

Four others, including Vrooman, are facing murder-related charges in Reid's death.

Vrooman has not been indicted in the case. Court documents filed in April suggest Vrooman could waive indictment and plead guilty to new charges.

Another co-conspirator, Michael Benton, 31, of Manchester, pleaded guilty to second-degree murder for beating Reid in the head with a hammer. In exchange for his plea, Benton has agreed to testify against Brooks and other men charged in the case.

No new hearing date has been set in Vrooman's case.