BURLINGTON — A Northfield man has denied federal criminal charges that allege he stole firearms from the estate of his dead father and sold them for money.
As Peter Baez, 41, entered his not guilty plea Thursday in federal U.S. District Court in Burlington, his sister, Alexandria Stanley, sat about 20 feet away in the gallery and watched.
Stanley has been pushing law enforcement since shortly after the November 2024 death of her father, 68-year-old Pedro “Pete” Baez, to more fully investigate the circumstances surrounding her father’s death, which was ruled a suicide.
Peter Baez was arrested Wednesday on the federal firearm charges for allegedly possessing and selling three stolen firearms and held in jail overnight pending the court hearing Thursday afternoon.
An indictment on the charges had been returned by a grand jury against him last month, but was sealed pending Baez’s arrest. The filing was unsealed Thursday.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Michelle Arra told Magistrate Judge Kevin Doyle during Thursday’s court hearing that, shortly before the death of Baez’s father, reportedly on Nov. 9, 2024, the father had removed his son from his will, making Stanley, his daughter, the beneficiary.
Days following the death of his father, the prosecutor alleged, the son illegally took his father’s firearms that, at that point, were part of the estate and sold them at gunshops, keeping the money.
Doyle agreed Thursday to release Baez on conditions, including that he stay at least 300 feet from the property line of the Northfield home where he had lived with his father. The judge also ordered that Baez not contact his sister or the attorney now handling his late father’s estate.
Attorney William A. Vasiliou II, representing Baez, told the judge his client did not object to those conditions.
Stanley, who has been critical of the Northfield Police Department’s investigation into her father’s death, has disputed findings by police and the Vermont Medical Examiner’s Office that he had shot himself.
She has called for a law enforcement agency other than the Northfield Police Department to further investigate the matter. She hired lawyer Christina Nolan, a former U.S. attorney for Vermont, to represent her.
After Thursday’s hearing, Stanley said she was grateful for the actions of federal prosecutors in the case, saying, “It is federal authorities who are now moving forward looking at this with the resources and the integrity that a suspicious death investigation deserves.”
Acting U.S. Attorney for Vermont Michael Drescher declined to comment Thursday when asked if his office was investigating the death of the father.
Northfield Police Chief Pierre Gomez could not be reached Thursday for comment.
Vasiliou, in response to journalist questions following Thursday’s hearing, said he wasn’t aware of an investigation into the death of his client’s father. Vasiliou said Baez, “had nothing to do with the death of his father.”
In an April email, Nolan wrote an email to many law enforcement officials and local and state leaders, including Vermont Chief Medical Examiner Elizabeth Bundock and Vermont Attorney General Charity Clark. In the email, Nolan argued that Stanley, her client, “has conducted as thorough an investigation into his death as any civilian could.”
Stanely’s findings, Nolan wrote, demonstrate that her father’s death warranted further investigation. Nolan then listed off several problems with the investigation leading to the suicide finding, including that no autopsy was ever conducted.
