Lewis, 35, is being charged for unlawfully possessing a stolen firearm that had been transported interstate. She is also facing a charge for possessing a firearm after being found “mentally defective” in a 2013 New York court case.
Lewis is accused of shooting firearms instructor Darryl Montague during a lesson at his Westford home on June 29, 2015. Montague, 52, said she shot him twice in the face and once in the abdomen. He spent a year at the University of Vermont Medical Center in Burlington healing from his injuries and is now disabled and unable to work.
Montague still has problems with balance and short term memory, and two bullets remain lodged in his head.
The federal charges follow an announcement from Chittenden County State’s Attorney Sarah George that she was dropping an attempted murder charge against Lewis because the state was unable to counter her planned insanity defense. At the same time, George also dropped charges in two unrelated second-degree murder cases for the same reason.
George wrote in a statement when dropping the charges that Lewis’s attorney had submitted opinions from psychiatrists indicating that she was insane at the time of the crime. George also wrote that the state has received evidence of a long history of mental illness diagnoses and previous psychiatric hospitalizations.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Jonathan Ophardt, who is prosecuting the new federal case, said there is “extensive” psychological and psychiatric evidence that will take time to review.
The deadline for pre-trial motions is Sept. 19.
