By Mike Donoghue, Vermont News First
A version of this story appeared on the Times Argus website Sunday evening.
MONTPELIER – Montpelier Police, along with the Vermont State Police SWAT team, arrested a dangerous man Sunday evening wanted for an aggravated assault complaint from earlier in the day in the capital city, officials said.
The suspect, Jason “Jay” Sicely, 36, of Barre, who barricaded himself in an apartment at 21 Cummings Street, also was wanted on a federal arrest warrant, officials said.
He is a defendant in a major interstate drug distribution conspiracy case pending in federal court in Burlington, authorities said.
There were no shots fired nor force used during the arrest of Sicely on Sunday night, officials said. No injuries were reported.
Also arrested earlier Sunday as part of the assault case was Kaycen Grace Hedges, 22, who was lodged at the Northeast Correctional Complex in St. Johnsbury about 7 p.m. Hedges was ordered held for lack of $5,000 bail for aggravated domestic assault, officials said.
Montpelier Police tried unsuccessfully to get Sicely to surrender during the day, but he ignored the orders. Later the State Police Crisis Negotiators also made a try, but he still refused to budge. State Police eventually deployed a form of tear gas and Sicely surrendered.
Sicely has been out on release conditions from federal court, records show. They include prohibiting him from committing any new federal, state or local crimes.
Sicely also is prohibited from possessing firearms, drugs and alcohol. He also had been ordered to seek residential treatment when he was released in May 2023.
Montpelier Police said officers began dealing with the aggravated assault complaint about breakfast time, but could not resolve the case after working on it throughout the day. The Vermont State Police Tactical Services Unit, better known as SWAT, was called into the city by late afternoon.
Attempts to reach Montpelier Police Chief Eric Nordenson by phone and text were unsuccessful. A spokesperson said he remained at the scene after the arrest about 7 p.m.
Some residents of Cummings Street were evacuated earlier in the day by Montpelier Police and those that remained home were asked to shelter in place.
Montpelier Police offered only there was “significant police activity on Cummings Street.”
The department said it believed, “There is no risk to the public, but we ask our community members to avoid the area until further notice.”
Sicely is one of four defendants stemming from a criminal investigation starting in 2022, former Montpelier Police Detective Sgt. Wade Cochran said in federal court records. He was assigned to a federal task force at the time.
The final defendant, Terry “Biggs” Catchings Jr., 28, of Detroit, Mich., is considered dangerous due to multiple convictions for firearms, records show.
Catchings was named in a federal indictment with conspiring to distribute heroin, crack cocaine and methamphetamine between July 2022 and August 4, 2022.
Catchings is due for sentencing on April 1.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office in Vermont said Catchings was arrested on a charge of first-degree premeditated murder in 2014 after three witnesses identified him as the shooter of a man driving an Impala near the East English Village Prep Academy in Detroit, records show.
A jury acquitted Catchings on the murder charge, but found him guilty for possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony, court records note. He was sentenced to 2 years in prison.
In 2019, Catchings and his sister, then a Detroit police officer, were arrested and charged with firearm offenses after a dispute at a wedding reception resulted in brandishing and discharges of firearms, records show. News accounts indicated Catchings fired his sister’s police department-issued handgun. It appears he received a one-year prison term for possessing a firearm as a convicted felon, records show.
Arrested earlier as part of the Vermont-based drug conspiracy investigation were Kimberly Kuncz, 53, of Montpelier and Fredrick “Momo” Campbell II, 19, of Detroit.
Kuncz, who once served as an Emergency Medical Technician in Cabot, has two earlier federal drug convictions in Vermont, records show.
She is awaiting sentencing, but no date has been set.
Campbell was placed on federal probation for four years with special conditions, records show.