Former CT doctor pleads not guilty in death of trucker

In the hours leading up to a fatal shooting along a Vermont road in 2019, Dr. Jozsef Piri was troubled by maintenance work on his 6-acre property, he later told police, according to his arrest warrant affidavit.

He went on to tell investigators how the work at his Vermont home was running up extra costs and causing him to be late for a show that evening at Foxwoods.

On his way back home to Connecticut, Piri’s problems mounted: He got stuck in traffic, re-routed and then lost before finally finding his way south on Route 103, Vermont State Police stated in the affidavit. When Piri tried to stop to get his truck washed, the machine would not read his credit card, the affidavit stated.

Piri later described it as a “s—t day that he was having,” according to a police account of their conversation.

At some point shortly after leaving the car wash, police said Piri fired at least two shots at a delivery truck being driven by Roberto Fonseca-Rivera, killing him in what authorities depicted as an act of road rage, according to the affidavit.

Piri, 49, was arrested this month and charged with second-degree murder in connection with the killing. In the affidavit, police allege Piri rolled down the back window of his pickup and fired into Fonseca-Rivera’s truck as both vehicles were moving.

Piri was extradited Thursday to Vermont after being arrested this month by the Collier County Sheriff’s Department in Naples, Fla., where Piri had been living since moving from Connecticut in March.

At his arraignment Monday in Vermont’s Windham County Superior Court, Piri appeared by video conference from jail and pleaded not guilty to the single charge of murder.

Piri’s attorney, Adam Hescock, announced an agreement with prosecutors to set Piri’s bail at $250,000 on the condition that he turn over any passports and firearms to authorities in Vermont and Florida. If released on bail, Piri will also have to reside at his Florida home under a curfew and remain out of trouble with police.

Hescock did not address the allegations against his client during Monday’s arraignment. He did not immediately respond to a request for comment left at his office in White River Junction, Vt.

A lengthy arrest warrant affidavit detailed how Vermont State Police used surveillance footage from a nearly 10-mile stretch of highway — as well as license plate data collected as part of a federal drug investigation along Interstate-91 — to hone in on Piri’s Toyota Tundra as a vehicle of interest within 24 hours of the Nov. 1, 2019 shooting.

Over the next two years, police conducted multiple interviews with Piri and searched his homes in Vermont and Connecticut, where he worked as a licensed physician before moving to Florida, records show. Police also searched his truck in February.

Those searches turned up a 9mm handgun of the same caliber used in the shooting, but it was missing the barrel and slide needed to conduct a full ballistic analysis, police said in the affidavit. Police also made note of a target range at Piri’s home in Vermont as well as several alleged hiding spots for weapons that led authorities to describe the doctor in the affidavit as an “above average firearm enthusiast.”

Besides Piri’s frustrations earlier on the day of the shooting, however, police did not offer a suspected motivation for the shooting. Piri and Fonseca-Rivera did not appear to know each other, police said.

In his initial interview with investigators the day after the shooting, Piri said he did not recall anything noteworthy after he left the car wash and that his luck had actually started to improve, according to the affidavit.

“I didn’t see anybody behind me. I didn’t see anyone on the side of the road, cars passed infrequently because it was a pretty quiet drive,” Piri said, according to the affidavit. “There wasn’t anyone in front of me for the first time in a long time … it was very uneventful.”

Deputy State’s Attorney Steven Brown declined to say last week what prompted police to arrest Piri this month.

“I’m not able to discuss the details of investigation or the timing of the arrest other than to say that the case was investigated in a diligent manner by State Police,” Brown said.

Piri was licensed to practice medicine in Connecticut and Florida, however, his license here expired in May, according to state licensing records.

In Connecticut, Piri received his license in 2006 after completing his postgraduate training at the University of Connecticut Health Center in Farmington, according to the Department of Public Health. The former West Simsbury resident had previously gone to medical school in Hungary.

His most recent affiliated practice was at Starling Physicians in Bloomfield, according to his records, which note that he was not actively involved in patient care. A call to the practice’s chief of staff was not returned last week.

Piri received his license to practice medicine in Florida last November, according to that state’s records. Neither state reported any disciplinary actions, major malpractice claims or any other actions taken against Piri’s licenses.

The victim, Fonseca-Rivera, was a 44-year-old driver working for Katsiroubas

Bros., a produce wholesaler based in Boston. He had recently been released from prison after serving time for drug charges, though police did not cite any connection between those charges and his death.

Following Piri’s arrest, the owner of the company, Ted Katsiroubas, said he offered Fonseca-Rivera a second chance when he was released from prison.

“We are pleased that a suspect has been identified two years after the horrific killing of Roberto, a good man just doing his job driving down the highway in Rockingham,” Katsiroubas said in a statement. “We hope that justice may be done for Roberto and that it may bring his family some peace.”

According to the affidavit, a close friend of FonsecaRivera was on the phone with him around the time he was shot. The friend told police Fonseca-Rivera complained about a car that had been speeding up and slowing down in front of him, the affidavit said. The friend later told police that he told Fonseca-River to “honk” at the car, according to the affidavit. The friend said he then heard a deep inhale and what appeared to be the sound of Fonseca-Rivera dropping his phone.

The friend called Katsiroubas Bros. after FonsecaRivera did not return home, and the company used the truck’s GPS to determine that it was stopped along the side of Route 103, the affidavit said. The friend’s son then called police, who found the truck and Fonseca-Rivera’s body.

The medical examiner later determined that at least one bullet pierced the windshield of the truck, hitting Fonseca-Rivera in the chin and neck. His death was not instantaneous and he had enough time to pull over and park the truck on the shoulder before dying, police said.

After identifying his Toyota driving ahead of the delivery truck on security footage, police said Piri told them he was not aware of their investigation into the shooting and he did not typically carry guns between homes in his truck because he did not have a concealed carry license in Massachusetts.

However, when police later inspected his truck, they found a magnetic gun holster near the center console, according to the affidavit. Police said they also examined Piri’s phone and discovered multiple searches for crime-related news in Vermont the day of the shooting, including some before Fonseca-Rivera’s body was discovered.

When police interviewed Piri again in February 2020, they wrote in the affidavit that his hands were “shaking drastically.”

When asked to recall the morning of the shooting at the second interview, police said Piri changed his account. He “denied having a ‘s—t day’ and stated he was fine,” police wrote in the affidavit.