Updated at 5:28 p.m.
Federal prosecutors have filed two criminal charges against a 21-year-old Washington state woman in connection with the investigation into Monday’s fatal shooting of a border patrol agent during a traffic stop in Coventry.
Court paperwork unsealed Friday morning in support of the charges against Teresa Youngblut also provides new details into the circumstances surrounding the traffic stop and shooting that killed 44-year-old David C. Maland, the border patrol agent. The filing was first reported by WCAX.
According to the criminal complaint, Youngblut faces two federal charges:
- Intentionally using a deadly weapon, a firearm, while forcibly assaulting, resisting, opposing, impeding, intimidating, or interfering with Border Patrol Agents while they engaged in or on account of the performance of their official duties;
- Discharging a firearm during and in relation to the assault with a deadly weapon.
Youngblut, who was also shot and wounded in the incident, has not been directly charged in the fatal shooting of Maland. She is set to appear Monday in federal court in Burlington.
She has been at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center in Lebanon, New Hampshire, where she was taken for treatment for her injuries following the incident, according to the new court filings.
Youngblut, who the charging documents stated had a Washington state driver’s license, was driving a 2015 Toyota Prius Monday afternoon when it was stopped by federal authorities on Interstate 91 in Coventry. A passenger, identified in the court filings as Felix Bauckholt, was also shot and killed in the incident.
The passenger had previously been identified by federal authorities only as a German national who had been in the United States on a current visa, although Friday’s court filing said a database showed the visa “appeared” to have expired when the traffic stop occurred. There was no explanation for the conflicting information.
The charging documents in Youngblut’s case provided no specific information about why she and Bauckholt were in northern Vermont.
Among the items seized from the Prius following the shootout were tactical gear, including a ballistic vest, night-vision goggles, a tactical belt with holster, 48 rounds of .380-caliber jacketed hollow-point ammunition, shooting range targets and two hand-held two-way radios, the court records stated.
Also, according to the filings, authorities seized from the vehicle about a dozen electronic devices; identification documents; utility, lease and travel information pertaining to several states; and an “apparent journal.” The court documents do not detail the contents or subjects of that journal.
Youngblut and Bauckholt, according to the newly filed court documents, had been on the radar of federal law enforcement in the Northeast Kingdom for about a week prior to the traffic stop and shooting.
An employee of a hotel in Lyndonville had contacted law enforcement after a man and woman checked into the hotel around January 14, court filings stated.
The hotel employee reported being concerned about the pair, “including that they appeared to be dressed in all-black tactical style clothing with protective equipment,” with Youngblut carrying an “apparent firearm” in an “exposed-carry holster,” according to the charging documents.
Investigators with Vermont State Police and the federal Homeland Security Investigations tried to initiate a “consensual conversation” with Bauckholt and Youngblut, “but they declined to have an extended conversation,” the court documents stated.
The pair, the filing stated, claimed they were in the area looking to buy property. Following the contact with law enforcement, the pair checked out of the Lyndonville hotel on the afternoon of Jan. 14, court documents stated.
On Sunday, Jan. 19, a day before the traffic stop, the two were spotted walking in downtown Newport “in similar tactical dress,” the filing said.
On Monday, at about 3 p.m., a border patrol agent pulled over the blue Toyota Prius that Youngblut and Bauckholt were in on Interstate 91 to “conduct an immigration inspection,” court documents stated.
Bauckholt, according to the court filing, “appeared to have an expired visa in a Department of Homeland Security database.”
“Multiple uniformed Border Patrol Agents were present at the stop in three USBP vehicles with emergency lights illuminated,” the court document stated.
Between 3 and 3:15 p.m., the filing stated, agents reported gunshots at the scene. Border patrol agents involved in the incident later reported that Bauckholt and Youngblut had firearms and that Youngblut “drew and fired” a handgun toward at least one border patrol agent “without warning when outside the driver’s side” of the vehicle, according to the filing.
“(Bauckholt) then attempted to draw a firearm,” the filing stated. At least one border patrol agent then fired at Youngblut and Bauckholt with his service revolver, the filing stated, not naming the agent.
A bomb squad with robotic equipment was called to the scene of the traffic stop after the shooting.
Outside the driver’s side of the Prius, authorities found Youngblut’s Washington state driver’s license, the court documents stated. In addition, authorities seized two packets of suspected cell phones wrapped in what appeared to be aluminum foil behind a border patrol vehicle, the filing stated.
“When inspecting the Prius using the robotic equipment, the Bomb Squad observed several additional electronic devices in the Prius, to include an Apple iPhone, at least two additional cell phones, and multiple laptop computers,” according to the court records.
Hours before the traffic stop Monday, the documents stated, authorities saw Bauckholt enter a Walmart in Newport at approximately 1 p.m. and come out with what appeared to be two packages of aluminum foil.
In the parking lot, Youngblut remained in the Prius in the driver’s seat and when Bauckholt returned to the vehicle he was seen removing sheets of foil and “wrapping unidentified objects” while seated in the car, the court records stated.
If convicted of the two charges filed in the case, Youngblut faces a maximum prison sentence of life and a mandatory minimum sentence of 10 years.
Correction: Due to incorrect information included in court papers, an earlier version of this story included a misspelling of Bauckholt’s name, though the story noted inconsistencies in the spelling.
