Updated 5:49 p.m.
Attorneys for Teresa Youngblut want more time to present information as they try to convince federal prosecutors not to file charges that carry the death penalty against their client in connection with the fatal shooting of a U.S. border patrol agent earlier this year in Vermont.
“This Court should step in to ensure Ms. Youngblut receives a meaningful opportunity to persuade the government not to pursue the death penalty,” Steven Barth and Julie Stelzig, lawyers for Youngblut, wrote in a Monday night filing in federal court in Burlington.
The attorneys wrote in the 21-page filing that the current deadline, later this month, to submit mitigating evidence against seeking the death penalty eligible charges in the case should be extended to “at least” Jan. 30, 2026.
The lawyers also asked for a hearing on the request. Judge Christina Reiss, who is presiding in the case, has not yet issued a ruling.
Youngblut, 21, of Washington state, is currently facing firearms and assault charges in connection with the Jan. 20 shootout on Interstate 91 in Coventry that killed David Maland, a U.S. border patrol agent who conducted a traffic stop that afternoon on a vehicle Youngblut had been driving.
At some point during that traffic stop, according to charging documents, Youngblut got out of the vehicle and began shooting. An exchange of gunfire occurred with law enforcement on the scene. Maland was killed in the shootout as was Felix Bauckholt, a German national who was a passenger in the vehicle Youngblut was driving.
Youngblut has not been charged directly with firing the shot that killed Maland. The FBI, which is leading the investigation into his fatal shooting, has refused to confirm who fired that fatal shot.
Youngblut, who was also hurt in the shootout, has been held in custody since receiving treatment for injuries in a hospital.
Barth, one of Youngblut’s attorneys, said at a hearing in the case last week that he expected federal prosecutors to file charges against his client in “short order” that carry the possibility of the death penalty.
He declined further comment to reporters following the hearing.
However, in the filing Monday night, Youngblut’s legal team provided more information about what has been taking place outside of the public eye in the case.
On June 2, federal prosecutors informed Youngblut’s defense team that “they should be prepared to meet with the U.S Attorney General’s Capital Case Review Committee” on July 28, the lawyers wrote in the filing.
That committee screens cases for the U.S. Attorney General’s Office and determines whether to seek charges that carry the death penalty.
Attorneys referenced an internal guidebook for the department, which says a meeting with the committee is intended to let the defense present evidence that the government would consider when deciding whether to seek the death penalty against someone charged with “potentially capital crimes.”
The lawyers wrote that the July 28 deadline does not provide Youngblut’s defense team with enough time.
Attorneys said the “unprecedentedly tight timeline is even more untenable” because Youngblut’s defense team only recently secured an attorney who specializes in cases that could involve the death penalty.
“And,” the lawyers added, “irregularities aside, the government’s schedule promises to turn Ms. Youngblut’s submission into a near-pointless formality.”
Youngblut and Bauckholt allegedly had ties to a loosely linked group of people known as the “Zizians.” Members of the group, an offshoot of the so-called Rationalist movement in the San Francisco Bay Area, have been tied to several other homicides across the country, including in California and Pennsylvania.
Neither Barth nor the U.S Attorney’s Office for Vermont, which is prosecuting Youngblut’s case, could be reached Tuesday for comment.
U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi had signaled early in the case that federal death penalty charges were being considered.
Bondi issued a directive shortly after taking office at the beginning of this year lifting a moratorium on federal executions that had been in place during the Biden administration. Bondi specifically cited in that directive the case involving the fatal shooting in Vermont of the border patrol agent.
Youngblut’s attorneys wrote in the filing Monday night that finding counsel to handle a potential death penalty case hasn’t been easy, in part, due to that directive.
“Each learned counsel can work on only a limited number of cases, and since January of this year the number of potentially capital cases in federal court has increased substantially,” Youngblut’s lawyers wrote. “The result is that fewer learned counsel are available to join federal capital teams than they would be otherwise.”
The filing also stated that Bondi has made clear that unless there are “significant mitigating circumstances,” the government will seek death against defendants, such as Youngblut, who are charged in cases involving the death of law enforcement officers.
As a result, the lawyers wrote, presenting compelling mitigating information “represents Ms. Youngblut’s best, and perhaps only, opportunity to convince the government to seek a non-death sentence.”
