Two men arrested earlier this month in Swanton have been indicted on federal firearms charges in Vermont.
The arrests come as authorities are investigating the Feb. 2 homicide of Elijah Oliver, 22, of Haverhill, Massachusetts, who was found dead in a Swanton home, killed by gunshot wounds to his torso.
According to court records, federal authorities arrested Jesse Sweet, 26, and Eric Raymond, 31, both of Swanton, on Feb. 11 charges of unlawful possession of firearms.
The filings indicate that Raymond’s arrest is linked to the investigation into Oliver’s killing, though there is no mention of the homicide in the court records filed in Sweet’s case.
Sweet’s residence in court filings is listed as 45 First St. in Swanton, which is where Oliver was found dead.
Federal prosecutors did not reference the homicide probe in a press release about the gun charges distributed on Friday.
However, a court filing in Raymond’s case showed that authorities were investigating Oliver’s homicide at a First Street home in Swanton early in the morning on Feb. 2, and that they were granted a warrant “in connection” with that investigation to search a residence on River Street.
Prior to conducting that search, according to court records, police saw several people leaving the River Street home, loading an all-terrain vehicle trailer with “miscellaneous” items.
The ATV, according to filings, was driven to the back of the property by a man later identified as Raymond. Police said they had secured the River Street home to conduct a search by the time Raymond returned.
Police also investigated where the ATV had traveled on the property, following fresh tracks from the vehicle and then fresh footprints leading to the rear driver’s side of an abandoned vehicle where a “fresh disturbance” of snow was found.
Below the vehicle where the snow had been disturbed, police said they saw a bedsheet covering a rifle, later determined to be a Anderson Manufacturing AM-15 rifle.
The bedsheet, court records stated, was dry and not frozen, and set on top of drifted snow. The footprints indicated that the driver of the ATV had placed the rifle at that spot.
Raymond was arrested about a week later. According to court filings, he told investigators he knew he was prohibited from possessing a firearm based on a prior felony conviction for burglary.
Sweet’s arrest followed after authorities say they learned he had posted an ad on Facebook Marketplace last month seeking to trade a snowmobile for a rifle.
He later admitted to trading that snowmobile to an unnamed person he met at his residence at 45 First St. in Swanton for a Ruger .308 rifle, according to court records. Sweet told authorities that he was going to give the firearm to a relative as a gift, according to filings.
Sweet was prohibited from possessing a firearm due to an earlier domestic assault conviction, authorities said.
Both men made initial appearances last week in federal court in Burlington where they were ordered detained by Magistrate Judge Kevin Doyle. Later in the week, a grand jury returned the indictments on the firearms charges against the two men.
Neither Robert Behrens, an attorney representing Raymond, nor Steven Barth, a federal public defender representing Sweet, returned phone messages left late Monday afternoon.
