A Washington state lady was ordered held with out bail Thursday in reference to the demise of a U.S. Border Patrol agent in a case that has grown to embody killings in a number of states.
Teresa Youngblut, 21, faces federal firearms fees within the Jan. 20 demise of Agent David Maland. She’s accused of opening hearth on brokers throughout a visitors cease in northern Vermont, sparking a shootout that additionally left her companion, Felix Bauckholt, useless.
Pennsylvania state police stated Wednesday that the gun used within the Vermont capturing was bought by an individual of curiosity within the Dec. 31, 2022, killings of Richard and Rita Zajko, who had been shot to demise of their Chester Heights residence. Each Youngblut and the customer had been in frequent contact with somebody who was detained as a part of the Pennsylvania investigation and is an individual of curiosity in one other killing in California, U.S. Lawyer Michael Drescher stated in a court docket submitting.
Prosecutors did not elaborate throughout a quick listening to Thursday throughout which neither Youngblut nor her lawyer spoke, in response to NBC affiliate WPTZ. Youngblut’s lawyer has not responded to requests for touch upon the costs. A preliminary listening to is scheduled for Feb. 7.
Within the meantime, police and court docket data have shed some gentle on the connections.
Jack LaSota is at the moment dealing with fees of obstructing regulation enforcement and disorderly conduct in Pennsylvania. Authorities received’t say whether or not these fees are associated to the Zajko deaths, however court docket data present that police had been trying to find a gun utilized in two killings after they arrested LaSota 12 days later at a resort about 10 miles (16 kilometers) from the scene of the killings.
LaSota additionally has connections to a number of the key gamers within the California case.
In 2019, LaSota and three others had been arrested whereas protesting an occasion hosted by the Middle for Utilized Rationality at a tenting retreat in Occidental, in response to the San Francisco Chronicle. In 2022, two of the others, Emma Borhanian and Jeffrey Leatham, had been accused of attacking their landlord with a sword in Vallejo. The owner, Curtis Lind, survived the November 2022 assault however was stabbed to demise Jan. 17.
Maximilian Snyder was charged this week with that killing. In November, somebody with the identical identify utilized for a wedding license with a Teresa Youngblut in Kirkland, Washington. Snyder’s lawyer declined to touch upon the costs.
LaSota might have been current through the 2022 landlord assault, in response to court docket paperwork that additionally counsel LaSota had been falsely reported useless three months earlier.
In line with a public data database, a Michelle Zajko was registered to vote in 2016 on the similar residence handle in Pennsylvania as Richard and Rita Zajko. In 2021, a Michelle Zajko purchased a half-acre piece of property in Derby, Vermont, a number of miles (about 6 kilometers) from the Canadian border. In line with city data, the land is undeveloped.
