No hearing set in death penalty case of Teresa Youngblut
by Mike Donoghue, Vermont News First
BURLINGTON — The lawyer for the woman facing a possible death sentence in the fatal shooting of a U.S. Border Patrol Agent in the Northeast Kingdom in January 2025 is asking a federal judge for a court hearing to ensure that evidence is properly maintained and shared with the defense team.
Teresa Youngblut, 22, of Seattle, Wash., wants to make sure she can have a proper defense, Assistant Federal Defender Steven Barth said as part of a 16-page motion filed in U.S. District Court in Burlington this month.
He said Youngblut is entitled to certain legal protections under the Fifth, Sixth and Eighth amendments to the U.S. Constitution.
Barth said he has been waiting 18 months for the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Burlington to share the evidence in the case, but the defense team has received limited information. He is concerned that some evidence could disappear or be destroyed as time marches on.
Barth said he was especially concerned that some evidence was captured on non-department issued cellphones used by law enforcement and that the evidence on those private/personal cellphones might be deleted intentionally or possibly just cleared due to timing.
He said multiple law enforcement officers from multiple state and federal agencies were involved in the events leading to the criminal charges.
He said the government has not preserved “the Law Enforcement Device Contents despite an earlier promise to do so…” he wrote.
Barth said he wants a judicial order to preserve “law enforcement communications, recordings, photographs, videos and other information contained in cell phones and other devices … used by law enforcement officers or agents involved in the days-long surveillance, stop and shooting that are the focus of this case.”
Youngblut is charged with the intentional, unlawful shooting death of veteran U.S. Border Patrol Agent David “Chris” Maland during a traffic stop while in the performance of his official duties on Interstate 91 in Coventry on Jan. 20, 2025.
She also is charged with using a deadly weapon to willfully fire upon and assault two other Border Patrol agents, who were identified only in the indictment by their initials: “J.M.” and “D.W.” The charge says they were in the midst of their official duties.
They have subsequently been identified as Border Patrol agents Jonathan Mayfield and Devon Whipple.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Matt Lasher, in a series of letters exchanged with Barth, acknowledged that the Border Patrol uniform worn by Agent Whipple on the day of the shooting was destroyed when it became blood soaked.
“The only items I have authorized the disposal of are Border Patrol Agent Whipple’s uniform components. He was not injured in the incident, and his uniform was blood-soiled from rendering aid, so it was a Haz-Mat concern. His service weapon and equipment are preserved,” Lasher said in an email to Barth at 7 p.m. Feb. 14, 2025.
It was in response to a letter earlier that day from Barth asking that evidence be retained.
Whipple provided first aid to Maland and reportedly rode in the back of a Newport City Police cruiser with the critically wounded agent to North Country Hospital in Newport, where the agent was pronounced dead about a half hour after the shooting.
He died from a single gunshot wound to the neck, the death certificate said.
The final two charges against Youngblut are for brandishing a Glock .40-caliber pistol while carrying out the homicide and the assaults.
Youngblut entered four not guilty pleas during her arraignment for the criminal charges stemming from the deadly traffic stop.
She is being held without bail at the Chittenden Regional Correctional Facility in South Burlington.
The new defense motion and 19 pages of letters and emails attached to the filing by Barth are the first substantive documents that provide details about the case since shortly after the shooting.
Officials were vague and offered inconsistent information in the days that followed the double-homicide, including the length of the traffic stop and the number of responding Border Patrol agents and vehicles.
Barth said in his motion the shooting came toward the end of what he said was a 36-minute traffic stop involving Youngblut and her passenger, Felix “Ophelia” Bauckholt, 28, a German national.
Barth said they “were forcibly ordered out of the vehicle. Thereafter shots were fired, including by at least one Border Patrol Agent.”
Youngblut was driving a 2015 blue Toyota Prius hatchback, which was registered to her passenger, Bauckholt.
When U.S. Border Patrol agents had Youngblut and Bauckholt get out of the car, she drew a handgun and pointed it at Maland and fired without warning, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives has said.
Two .40-caliber casings recovered at the scene support the inference that Youngblut fired her handgun twice, ATF Task Force Agent Jamie Loomis said. Another Border Patrol agent returned fire, wounding Youngblut and then spotted Bauckholt attempting to draw a firearm, Loomis said.
The unnamed agent fired at and fatally wounded Bauckholt. He died at the scene about 8 miles south of the international border for the U.S. and Canada.
Following the incident, Youngblut and Bauckholt were each found to be in direct possession of a handgun-Youngblut was holding a Glock 23 .40-caliber semi-automatic pistol, while Bauckholt had a Smith & Wesson M&P Shield EZ .380-caliber semi-automatic pistol in a holster on his waistband, Loomis said.
Supervisory Border Patrol Agent Cameron Thompson, who arrived at the scene about 3:35 p.m. did speak to the two agents and shared some general information with the FBI.
Barth said the preservation order should include, but is not limited to the Department of Homeland Security, Homeland Security Investigations, Customs and Border Protection, the FBI, and Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, Vermont State Police, Orleans County Sheriff’s Department, Newport and Lyndonville Police and even the constables in Coventry. He also wants it to apply to the Orleans County State’s Attorney, Vermont Attorney General and the Department of State’s Attorney’s and Sheriffs.
Barth noted that Chief Federal Judge Christina Reiss has not set any deadline for pre-trial motions and the defense is still investigating the details.
Federal officials were aware of the pair since they arrived at a Lyndonville motel about a week before the shooting. The two drew attention by being dressed in black tactical style clothing with protective equipment. One of them was seen carrying a firearm in a holster, officials have said.
The two checked out of the Lyndonville motel after being quizzed by Homeland Security and the Vermont State Police and moved 35 miles north to the Newport City Inn and Suites, officials have said.
“From January 14 to January 20, 2025, law enforcement – including officers and agents of the involved Parties – conducted surveillance of Youngblut in northern Vermont. That surveillance involved, among other things, tailing the car (a Toyota Prius) that Youngblut was in, monitoring Youngblut’s hotel, approaching and initiating conversation while agents posed as local civilians,” Barth wrote.
The defense filing also confirmed earlier news reports, including by Vermont News First, that Youngblut and Bauckholt were believed connected to the Zizians, a radical transgender cult interested in veganism, gender identity and artificial intelligence.
The Zizian group has been linked to six homicides across three states, including the two dead in Vermont.
An independent movie producer was in Vermont earlier this summer filming scenes and doing interviews for a possible production.
Barth also has petitioned that any court and investigative documents that appear related to Zizian-related prosecutions in other states also be retained. He listed a series of federal and state cases that are pending in Pennsylvania, Maryland, California and Vermont.
A court-ordered search of their Prius in Vermont later uncovered various pieces of tactical gear, including a ballistic helmet, night-vision-goggle monocular, a tactical belt with holster and a magazine loaded with cartridges, two full-face respirators, 48 rounds of .380-caliber jacketed hollow point ammunition, a package of shooting range targets, including some that were used, records show.
Also seized were two-way radios, about a dozen electronic devices and multiple removable electronic storage devices, various identification documents, utility, lease, travel and lodging information for multiple states and a journal maintained by Youngblut.
The two guns seized at Coventry were purchased by one of the Zizians, who was living in Orleans County a year before the shooting, records show.
Michelle J. Zajko, formerly of Orleans County, is charged in Vermont with making false statements to a federally licensed firearms dealer in Rutland County one year before the shooting in order to illegally obtain four guns over two days, the ATF said in a criminal complaint. Two of the guns were recovered from Youngblut and Bauckholt from the shooting scene in Coventry, the ATF said.
Zajko, now 33, had fled before she could be arrested on the federal criminal complaint filed Feb. 18, 2025 in Vermont. She had residences listed in Orleans, Coventry and Derby while living in Vermont
However, she was charged in Delaware County, Pennsylvania, for the fatal shooting of her parents, Rita Zajko, 69, and Richard Zajko, 72, at their home in an upscale suburb of Philadelphia on Dec. 30, 2022.
Michelle Zajko reportedly shot her mother in the back of her head, while her father was struck in the right temple and right hand, officials have said. The shootings happened on the 30th birthday for Michelle, who has a master's degree from Temple University and interned at NASA.
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