By Michael Donoghue, Vermont News First

A Mississippi felon, who was linked to the fatal stabbing of a minister’s son, has been arrested with a loaded firearm in Orleans County near the international border, according to the U.S. Border Patrol.

Cruz Gary, 39, most recently of Barton, appeared briefly in U.S. District Court in Burlington on Monday afternoon for a felony charge of being a convicted felon in possession of a firearm on Friday night.

Federal Magistrate Judge Kevin J. Doyle agreed to continue the detention hearing until Tuesday.

During his post-arrest interview with the U.S. Border Patrol, Gary said he had served 22 years for manslaughter, court records show.

A Mississippi television news story from March 2005 indicated Gary, then 18, was charged with the fatal stabbing the 17-year-old son of a well-known minister in Hazlehurst, MS. They were acquaintances, police said at the time.

The victim was the third child of the Rev. Ellis Blackwell to die from violent crimes, according a news accounts. A sister, 17, died in a drive-by shooting and a brother, 27, was shot in the head, heart and hand in unrelated cases, the news report said.

Gary admitted that he has handled the firearm and that his fingerprints and DNA would be found on the 9-mm handgun and ammunition, records show. He also admitted that he had fired the gun while visiting Mississippi and that he loads the firearm, cleans and maintains it, a court affidavit said.

Assistant U.S. Attorney David Golubock in Burlington has petitioned the federal court to order Gary detained pending trial both as a danger to the community and a risk to flee. Golubock noted Gary can be detained under the federal bail law because his latest crime involves a firearm.

Besides the manslaughter conviction, federal court papers note that Gary has a 2005 conviction for a felony charge for carrying a concealed weapon and was sentenced to 3 years in prison.

Gary also was charged with a felony drive-by shooting in Magee, MS in January 16, 2004, but has no known disposition, according to court records.

He also has a criminal conviction this spring in Orleans County after a felony aggravated domestic assault was reduced to a misdemeanor domestic case on a woman, records show.

Vermont State Police reported on April 10 they were called to an apartment at 155 Main Street in Barton and met with both persons involved about 11:03 a.m.

State Trooper James Gallup said at the time, based on interviews and evidence found at the scene, Gary was lodged at the Northern State Correctional Facility in Newport. The former Mount Olive, MS resident was ordered held without bail.

Orleans County State’s Attorney Farzana Leyva charged him with two felony counts of aggravated domestic assault and one misdemeanor count of domestic assault, records show.

Leyva later obtained a conviction and Gary was sentenced to serve 29-to-30 days in prison, federal court records show. Leyva had wanted to charge Gary as a habitual offender, but the victim, a traveling nurse from Mississippi, in the end, refused to cooperate, records show.

The domestic violence victim, Latara Norwood, 35, is believed to be the same person riding with Gary when he was pulled over driving four months later on Friday. A federal court affidavit identified his passenger only as “LN.”

In the new case, the U.S. Border Patrol said Gary and the woman riding with him claimed they were making a grocery delivery for DoorDash in the rural town of Holland, population about 630, when stopped Friday afternoon.

A veteran Border Patrol Agent had spotted a Toyota Camry with Mississippi registration plates near the Duty Free Store in Derby Line a few hundred feet from the International Border about 2:20 p.m.

Court record note the Border Patrol agent was fully aware of current trends in illicit border activity, including alien smuggling in the area with the roads that lead away from the International border. The agent also was aware of at least one recent alien smuggling case in the area and that many of the vehicles used in smuggling illegal immigrants use out-of-state vehicles.

The operator began to act suspicious with his driving and the Border Patrol Agent eventually activated the lights and siren on his fully marked cruiser to get the suspect vehicle to pull over, court records show. Records noted the agent was unable to tell how many people were in the suspect vehicle because it had tinted windows, which are illegal in Vermont.

The agent became more suspicious when the couple offered various comments, including the claim about the Door Dash delivery and that it appeared to be a convenient cover story for possible criminal activity, the court affidavit said.

The Border Patrol found the 9-mm handgun with a magazine containing 10 rounds in a bag with both occupants making claims of ownership, court records show. Inside the bag was a Social Security card and a MassHealth car bearing Gary’s name, the affidavit said. The bag was near his feet in the car, records show.