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Smoronk waives probable cause hearing paving way for Virginia indictments

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Dean Smoronk (Virginia State Police photo)

HANOVER, Va. - The Farmington, N.H., man whose home was the site of a grisly double murder last January and who was arrested in Virginia on several drug charges in June waived his right to a probable cause hearing in Hanover District Court on Friday.

Dean Smoronk, 55, was transported by security personnel for the short two-mile trip from Pamunkey Regional Jail to Hanover District Court to personally sign the waivers, according to a Hanover District Court spokesperson.

Among the charges certified for consideration by a Hanover County grand jury are manufacture/distribution of ephedrine (steroids), manufacture of controlled drugs and two other counts of drug possession.

Lesser charges of possessing drug paraphernalia, two separate drug possession charges and obstruction of justice were dropped.

The charges are a result of a June 11 during a traffic stop on Interstate 95 that yielded a huge cache of drugs. The car was stopped while speeding through a work zone, according to Virginia State Police.

Smoronk has now been arrested in three states - South Carolina, Virginia and Illinois - for drug possession.

He has yet to face trial in the South Carolina and Virginia cases but was convicted in Illinois in September 1983 in connection with an LSD trafficking case while a forestry major at Southern Illinois University in Carbondale. He was sentenced to 24 months of probation and paid $600 in fines and court costs, according to newspaper records obtained by The Rochester Voice.

Smoronk's Farmington home at 979 Meaderboro Road was the scene of a brutal double murder in January, when his longtime girlfriend, Christine Sullivan, 48, along with Jenna Pellegrini, 32, of Barrington, were stabbed to death on Jan. 27.

Timothy Verrill, 34, of Dover, N.H., and a longtime friend of both Smoronk and Sullivan, was arrested in the two women's deaths in February in Massachusetts. He is being held without bail at Carroll County Jail.

Smoronk has never been implicated as either a suspect or person of interest in the deaths.

All four charges he faces in Virginia carry penalties of 1-10 years apiece. He continues to be held at Pamunkey Regional Jail on no bail.

R. E "Trip" Chalkley III, Commonwealth's Attorney for Hanover County, told The Rochester Voice on Friday that a grand jury will rule on a possible indictment of Smoronk on all four charges next month.

Meanwhile, the New Hampshire Attorney General's Office has been granted several extensions for more time to develop their case as they prepare to convene a grand jury for indictment of Verrill in the two women's deaths.

Evidence in what prosecutors characterize as a "complex" case is expected to include thousands of pages of documents as well as dozens of CDs containing audio recordings and photographs.

Adding to the complexity is the fact that Smoronk is also awaiting trial in a South Carolina court in a 2014 meth trafficking case.

It was Smoronk who told police he found the bodies after returning home late Jan. 28 on a flight from Florida, where he and Sullivan also spent time in a tony Cape Coral condominium complex.

Just last month Smoronk scored a victory here in New Hampshire when the state's effort to seize more than $14,000 in cash from his Farmington home by forfeiture petition was tossed by a Strafford County Superior Court judge because the state's notice of intent to seize wasn't made on time. The state had reasoned that Smoronk was a known drug dealer as the basis for its forfeiture attempt.

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