Bronx Murderer Sentenced

The Office of the United States Attorney for the District of Vermont stated that Roger K. Aletras, Jr., age 37, of the Bronx, was sentenced today before United States District Court Chief Judge William K. Sessions, III, for conspiring to commit interstate armed robbery, and murder while using a firearm during a drug trafficking crime.

Aletras was sentenced to a 15 year term of imprisonment, to be served consecutively to an undischarged 17 year prison sentence imposed in the Southern District of New York, followed by 5 years of supervised release. He was also ordered to pay the funeral costs of the victim, in the amount of $7,465, as restitution.

Aletras previously admitted that on December 16, 2002, he and his New Jersey accomplice, Kevin Arkenau, came to Vermont and robbed two marijuana dealers from upstate New York at gunpoint in South Burlington. Returning south to New York with a duffle bag of stolen high-grade marijuana, the two men stopped at a hotel in Saratoga Springs, New York. In a motel room several hours later, Aletras killed Arkenau by shooting him twice in the head. Aletras then returned to the Bronx with the stolen drugs.

Aletras was represented by lawyers Kerry DeWolfe and Jean Barrett. The United States was represented by Assistant U.S. Attorney William Darrow.

The United States Attorney lauded the work of investigators from the Saratoga Springs, New York, Police Department; the New York State Police; the South Burlington Police Department; the DEA; and the FBI.