[S]OUTH ROYALTON — A South Royalton man accused of the fatal shooting of his estranged wife last weekend was taken into custody by police on Thursday immediately upon his discharge from the hospital, where he was being treated for injuries sustained after the shooting.
Frank Sanville will be charged with first-degree murder, Vermont State Police Commander Dan Trudeau said in a news release on Friday.
Police say Sanville shot his 48-year-old estranged wife, Wanda Sanville, inside her home on Happy Hollow Road, last Sunday. He was on furlough while serving a two- to 12-month sentence stemming from a domestic assault conviction in February.
Sanville has a criminal history that includes numerous convictions, for domestic assault in 2012, disorderly conduct in 2007, simple assault in 2006 and prohibited sexual acts in 2005.
Wanda Sanville’s relatives said she had reported abuse by her husband to police in December, and that she had received threats from him before the shooting.
The furlough had been revoked and Sanville was to report to the Southern State Correctional Center in Springfield.
Probation officers in other cases involving Frank Sanville said he continued to harass his victims, and recommended that he be returned to jail.
“Probation does not seem to be protecting the victim in this case,” probation officer Terry Rooney had written to court officials last April.
He had sustained a head injury in a struggle with one of Wanda Sanville’s family members after the shooting. They had succeeded in taking the gun away from him, but he fled. Sanville was found by police last Sunday, hiding in a barn near the scene of the shooting.
He was taken to Gifford Medical Center in Randolph and then to Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center.
Sanville’s arraignment will be in Windsor Superior Court, police said in the release.
