BURLINGTON — A former California man accused of setting a fire at the Burlington office of U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders was indicted Thursday on a federal charge and ordered held in custody while the case against him remains pending. 

A federal grand jury returned the indictment against 35-year-old Shant Michael Soghomonian roughly five minutes prior to a scheduled hearing to determine if he would continue to be held behind bars, as he has been since his April 7 arrest in connection with the fire. 

The one-count indictment returned Thursday against Soghomonian alleged that on the afternoon of April 5, he “maliciously damaged, and attempted to damage and destroy” the building at One Church Street with the use of fire. 

If convicted of the federal charge, Soghomonian faces a mandatory minimum of five years in prison, with the possibility of up to 20 years behind bars. 

Neither charging documents nor records filed by the prosecution in the case have revealed any motive for why Soghomonian allegedly set the fire near the door to Sanders’ third-floor office. Soghomonian did not address the court as he sat next to his attorney during the hearing.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Matthew Lasher, the prosecutor, and Magistrate Judge Kevin Doyle each stated during Thursday’s hearing that Soghomonian had a “serious mental health history” for which he was not currently receiving treatment.

Lasher said Soghomonian had in the past “self-reported” to the FBI in Los Angeles that the government had been hacking into his devices. 

Doyle also said that a pretrial services document prepared ahead of Thursday’s detention hearing indicated that Soghomonian’s mental health history included reporting that “drones are reading his mind.” 

Soghomonian did not enter a plea to the charge Thursday. Instead, Doyle said since the indictment was returned only minutes before the hearing, he would allow Soghomonian and his attorney time to discuss the matter and set an arraignment for a future date. 

The fire occurred in the entryway leading to Sanders’ Senate office in the historic downtown building. Sanders was not in the office at the time of the fire, although seven of his staffers were, according to investigators.

No one was physically injured in the fire, police said. The building sustained water damage and the door was charred. Other businesses in the building include a law firm and a bank.

During Thursday’s hearing, Lasher pushed for Soghomonian’s continued detention, contending that the former California resident had no residence in Vermont or other ties to the state such as a job.

Soghomonian, the prosecutor said, had been living in Vermont hotels since at least February and for the past couple of years had resided in several other states.

A search of his vehicle and hotel following his arrest on April 7 led to authorities seizing a tote bag similar to one the suspect was spotted carrying in surveillance images captured at the fire scene, Lasher said. Also, he said, the tote bag contained matches and a “fire starter.”

Setting the fire, the prosecutor said, was an extremely dangerous act that could have resulted in the serious injury or death of a number of people had it not been suppressed as quickly as it was.

To bolster his case to hold Soghomonian in custody, Lasher reiterated information from a filing last week detailing the suspect’s past run-ins with the law, including a traffic stop in Illinois last year in which police seized an AK-47 rifle from his vehicle after Soghomonian allegedly told authorities there were no firearms inside.

Mary Nerino, a federal public defender representing Soghomonian, argued during the hearing for her client’s release. She said Soghomonian’s parents, who reside in California, were willing to help financially support him in Vermont if release conditions called for him to reside in the state. 

She added that the only criminal conviction for Soghomonian dates back nearly 20 years, when he was 16, for an incident that occurred when he was 15. 

According to federal prosecutors, Soghomonian was arrested in 2005 for an alleged assault involving a firearm on a person in Glendale, California. 

Nerino said Thursday she was still researching that case to determine what had taken place and how it was eventually resolved. 

Lasher, the prosecutor, said that days following the traffic stop in Illinois in August 2023, Soghomonian allegedly tried to purchase a gun in Pennsylvania but that sale was denied by a federal licensed firearms dealer.

Lasher said in court Thursday that it appeared the sale was denied because Soghomonian had a prior felony conviction stemming from the 2005 incident. 

Also, the prosecutor said, it was not clear how Soghomonian had come into possession of the AK-47 rifle that was seized from his vehicle in Illinois last summer.