[B]URLINGTON — A Texas man accused of going on a multi-state crime spree that ended when police shot him last month in Brattleboro has been released from the hospital and appeared in federal court Monday in Vermont to face a federal criminal charge.
According to police, Mark Triolo, 46, of Lewisville, Texas, was not armed when they shot him earlier this month after he refused orders as he fled from them to stop and put his hands up. Investigators did say they later discover a pellet gun in his vehicle.
Triolo, who had been injured in the shooting and was recently released from Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center in Lebanon, New Hampshire, pleaded not guilty Monday in U.S. District Court in Burlington to a federal robbery charge. He was ordered detained pending trial.
Triolo “obstructed, delayed or affected commerce or the movement of any article or commodity in commerce, by robbery,” a federal criminal complaint against him stated.
“Up until his arrest in Vermont, the defendant was on a crime spree throughout the U.S. and that conduct resulted in active arrest warrants out of Texas, Kansas and New York,” according to prosecutors in Vermont, in arguing to hold Triolo in jail.
“This conduct demonstrates there are no conditions this Court could set which would assure the defendant’s appearance in Court,” prosecutors added, “and there are no conditions which would protect the public from the defendant.”
Police said Triolo made his way to Vermont earlier this month after cutting off his GPS monitoring device from his ankle and fleeing Texas where he was on parole from a previous robbery conviction in that state.
He had traveled to Vermont in a black 2007 Kia Sorento that had belonged to his girlfriend’s mother, court records stated.
On May 2, two days prior to the shooting and arrest, Triolo, according to a court filing, sent a text message to his girlfriend and her mother with grammatical and spelling mistakes, telling them that he would be sending the vehicle back to them.
“By now the feds have contacted you about me, sorry about that. I’ve robbed too many banks in the last few days for this to end well. Just put the kua on a car hauler should be there in ten days look in the door panel of the drivers door its stuffed with cash keep your mouth shut about it and no one will know,” he wrote, according to the court filing.
He then added, “Sorry I know I ducked up love you guys. Don’t try and text me back ditching the phone so I can’t be tracked.
According to court documents, on May 1, Triolo held up the Small City Market in Vergennes and fled the store with $6,115 in cash.
At the time of that robbery, Triolo was also a suspect in a recent robbery in Queensbury, New York, a day earlier, according to authorities.
On the evening of May 4, court filings stated, police were notified of two more armed robberies: one at the Ascutney Sunoco gas station in Weathersfield and a second armed robbery at the Allen Brothers Farm Market in Westminster.
Police said through investigation they learned that those two robberies on May 4 were the work of Triolo, based on information, including surveillance images, gathered from the earlier stickups.
Around 8:40 p.m. on May 4 police said they found Triolo at the Exit 3 Mobil gas station in Brattleboro, still driving the black KIA Sorento with Texas plates, and tried to take him into custody.
“While at the Exit 3 Mobil Station, Triolo exited the vehicle and purchased three Mike’s Hard Lemonades inside the Mobil Station, before returning to the vehicle,” according to the criminal complaint filed against him. “As Triolo returned to the vehicle, he was approached by (Brattleboro Police Department) officers who attempted to take him into custody.”
However, Triolo sped away.
Minutes later, a resident called police and reported that a suspicious vehicle was parked in their driveway with the lights off on Black Mountain Road in town. Police then arrived at the scene.
“Upon doing so officers determined the suspect was no longer in the vehicle and was on foot in a wooded area adjacent to the driveway. Officers began to search this area as a group and came in contact with the suspect as they reached the adjacent property,” according to a statement issued by Vermont State Police.
“Officers began to give verbal commands to the suspect, ordering him to stop and to show his hands,” the statement added. “The suspect did not respond to verbal commands, and subsequently officers fired multiple rounds striking the suspect.”
He was taken into custody and eventually transported to Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center in Lebanon, New Hampshire, for treatment of his injuries.
Officers searching the vehicle driven by Triolo recovered a pellet gun “which was similar in appearance to an actual semi-automatic pistol” and similar to the weapon used in one of the earlier robberies, according to police.
Those four officers firing shots included three members of the Brattleboro Police Department and a trooper with the Vermont State Police.
The case will be reviewed separately by the Windham County State’s Attorney and the Vermont Attorney General’s Office, as is customary for police shootings in Vermont.
Triolo’s shooting was the fourth by police of a suspect over a nine-month span, three of them fatal. In two of those previous three cases, suspects held BB guns that authorities described as resembling Glock handguns.
The three previous shootings, the Vermont Attorney General’s Office and the prosecutor for the court where the incidents took place, have said their reviews showed that the officers involved were justified in their use of deadly force.
State Police say they have been reviewing procedures and policies, with an internal review panel recommending that the officers involved in shootings be placed administrative leaves for longer periods of time.
Before he made it to Vermont, authorities say, Triolo robbed a bank in Topeka, Kansas, on April 26.
Warrants for his arrest have been issued in other states where he allegedly committed crimes. If convicted of the federal charge in Vermont alone, prosecutors say, he faces up to 20 years in prison.
