Judge Orders Border Patrol Shooting Suspect Held Without Bail
The New York Times
At a hearing and in court filings, a federal prosecutor in Vermont cited connections between the defendant, Teresa Youngblut, and people linked to other murder investigations.
In court filings and arguments before a judge on Thursday, a federal prosecutor in Vermont laid out a web of connections between Teresa Youngblut, who faces charges related to the fatal shooting of a Border Patrol agent last week, and two people linked to murder investigations in other states.
The allegations of ties between Ms. Youngblut, 21, and people suspected of violent crimes in California and Pennsylvania shed little new light on the highway traffic stop in Coventry, Vt., on Jan. 20 that ended with the deaths of the border agent, David Maland, and Ms. Youngblut’s companion, Felix Bauckholt.
But during a detention hearing in federal court in Burlington, Vt., on Thursday, Matthew Lasher, an assistant U.S. attorney, cited those connections, and Ms. Youngblut’s “violent escalation of an otherwise peaceful law enforcement encounter,” as evidence that she should remain in federal custody while her case proceeds.
“That kind of unprovoked violence could not more clearly demonstrate the danger to the community that the defendant represents,” he said.
During the traffic stop last week, Border Patrol agents reported, Ms. Youngblut drew a handgun and fired it at them without warning. She has been charged with assaulting federal law enforcement officers with a deadly weapon.
Steven Barth, a federal public defender representing Ms. Youngblut, said that she was contesting her detention, but he declined to offer arguments supporting her release.
