Former SRHS Student
Fatally Shot in Quechee
By Sandy Vondrasek Cooch

Cory Charles Manley, an 18-year-old who had "blossomed" during his three years of foster care in South Royalton, was tragically shot and killed by a close friend last Tuesday night inside a Quechee home.

Manley, shot at close range in the chest, was transported to Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center where he was pronounced dead.

Police said the shooter, Thomas M. Day, 23, of Quechee, had been drinking and pointing his mother’s .38-caliber handgun at himself and others, just prior to the fatal March 13 shooting.

It was about 8:40 p.m., and Day, Cory Manley, and his older brother Aaron were hanging out at Day’s mother’s home, after a day of job hunting. Day had consumed two mixed drinks and was working on a third, when he took his mother’s gun—which was loaded—out of a drawer, Aaron Manley told police.

According to court records, Day admitted to police that he shot his friend, but said he thought the revolver was empty of all bullets when he pointed the gun and pulled the trigger. However, Aaron Manley told police that that everyone—including Day—knew otherwise.

In his statement, Aaron Manley told police that Day knew there were five bullets in the cartridge, and that Day "would position the cartridge so he would pull back the hammer and pull the trigger so the gun would dry fire."

Prior to pointing the gun at Cory Manley, Day had allegedly pointed it at his own head several times, pulling the trigger, and at least once at Aaron Manley. Nothing happened.

Then Day allegedly asked Cory Manley if he "trusted" him.

Manley told police that his younger brother replied, "I trust you, but not the loaded gun."

A few seconds later, Manley lay fatally shot and bleeding, on the kitchen floor.

Windsor County State’s Atty. Robert Sand made the decision to charge Day with second-degree murder, not manslaughter, or involuntary manslaughter, as Day’s attorney argued at his arraignment last Wednesday in Windsor District Court.

Day pleaded innocent to the second-degree murder charge and was ordered held on $150,000 bail.

‘He Was a Worker’

This week South Royalton High School Principal Shaun Pickett said that Cory Manley attended the school for three years, leaving about one year ago.

Pickett noted that Manley stayed with a foster family just down the street from the school.

"That was a good place for him," added Pickett, noting that Manley received a lot of support, both from his foster family, the Orechoveskys, and from the school.

His proximity to the school made it easy for Manley to join extracurricular activities, and his foster family encouraged him to get involved.

Manley joined the track team and played soccer for a little while, and he worked out in the school’s small weight room with a group of other kids, Pickett said.

Manley, "very small in stature," was not especially athletic, but he worked hard.

"He was interested in belonging," Pickett said.

"He at times could be very happy," Pickett added, noting that Manley "liked to work," and had a job at the school doing custodial work.

After leaving SRHS, Manley attended Hartford High School, leaving there after the first semester of the current school year.

Although Manley left South Royalton last year, many students at the school remember him, and a small memorial display has been set up in the corridor of the school, Pickett said.

This is not the first time the school has lost a former student to a shooting death. In September, 2002, 19-year-old Corey Brink was shot in West Lebanon, N.H, in a early-morning conflict between two other individuals.

Another loss came last August, when Army Sgt. Carlton Clark, a 2002 graduate of SRHS, was killed in Iraq.

"It’s been a struggle," Pickett said quietly.

An obituary for Cory Manley appears in the B-section of this week’s Herald.

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