BURLINGTON, Vt. (AP) — Federal prosecutors are filing charges against a woman whose attempted murder case was dropped by a Vermont county prosecutor because an insanity defense was planned.
The U.S. attorney for Vermont told WCAX-TV that Veronica Lewis was charged on Tuesday with unlawfully possessing a gun after having been adjudicated as “mentally defective” and possessing a stolen firearm.
Lewis was charged in the 2015 shooting of firearms instructor Darryl Montague at his Westford home. Montague survived being shot multiple times.
Federal officials say a New York court found Lewis to be “mentally defective” in 2013 in an unrelated case. They say she was not allowed to possess firearms and stole Montague’s gun after she shot him. The federal public defender’s office expects it will represent Lewis, but has not been appointed yet.
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