By Michael Donoghue
Vermont News First
BURLINGTON – A Caledonia County felon, who was wounded during a shootout with U.S. deputy marshals as part of a traffic chase from New Hampshire into Vermont last year, was sentenced in federal court Thursday to 10 years in prison.
Douglas Reynolds, 37, tried to outrun the marshals service in his black Volkswagen Jetta at speeds over 100 miles per hour, but eventually ran out of gasoline in Ryegate during the pursuit on Oct. 24, 2024, officials said.
Reynolds, who had used methamphetamine about 10 minutes before the chase, fired at least one shot from a Ruger .357 magnum revolver at the federal authorities, officials said. At least one deputy marshal returned fire and struck Reynolds in the head about 1:15 p.m.
Reynolds was treated at a local hospital and later lodged in jail, police said.
Chief Federal Judge Christina Reiss in Burlington imposed the mandatory minimum 10-year prison term for discharging a firearm while assaulting a federal law enforcement officer.
Reiss told Reynolds that his federal sentence has to be consecutive to any criminal convictions he receives for the pending state court cases in Vermont or New Hampshire as part of his crime spree.
Reynolds, who has had several listed home addresses in New Hampshire and Vermont through the years, also agreed to forfeit the revolver he fired and 19 rounds of ammunition. He also will forgo any claims for at least four other firearms that were seized from him, including three by Bradford Police last year.
The apprehension of fugitives is one of the primary functions of the U.S. Marshals Service, which is the oldest federal law enforcement agency in the nation. New Hampshire authorities had asked for federal help to track down Reynolds, who had eluded police for a series of arrest warrants in the Granite State.
Judge Reiss had high words of praise for about a half dozen members of the USMS Task Force from New Hampshire, who made the trip north from Concord to attend the sentencing.
“Thanks for doing your job. You handled it really well,” said Reiss, who has been on the federal bench for 15 years. She said the deputy marshals showed patience and restraint when their lives were at risk, especially when Reynolds was uncooperative at the end of the car chase.
Reiss also told Reynolds he was fortunate that he was not a good aim. She explained to Reynolds if he had killed one of the federal lawmen he would have been facing a death sentence.
“You should consider yourself incredibly lucky,” Reiss said. “You were going to kill somebody if you didn’t get stopped.”
Reiss also told Reynolds it was fortunate that none of the federal law enforcers had to live with the lifetime consequences of killing the fleeing felon. She said that a fatal shooting would impact the deputy’s life, family and career forever.
“It doesn’t go away,” the judge said.
Reynolds said in court that he was not thinking clearly after taking the methamphetamine.
“I have to face the consequences,” he said. “I wish I could take it back.”
Reiss explained to Reynolds he will be under federal supervised release conditions for 3 years once he is discharged from prison. The conditions include he is not allowed to commit any new crimes and he must refrain from drug use.
As part of the plea bargain Reynolds agreed to make $1,076 in restitution to the U.S. Marshals Service. He also agreed to forfeit the gun used in the shooting and abandon any claims for other firearms and ammunition from the Bradford case.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Joshua L. Banker agreed that Reynolds had put the community, law enforcement and himself at risk.
“The defendant’s decision to run from and fire on law enforcement endangered both the officers on scene and the wider community,” Banker wrote said in his sentencing memo.
“Law enforcement officers understand that fulfilling their duties may require risk to life and limb to keep the community safe. But their willingness to absorb stress, trauma and injury that such risks entail does not make the defendant’s crimes any less serious,” he said.
Members of the Vermont State Police and the U.S. Marshals Service in Burlington also were in the Upper Connecticut Valley searching for Reynolds when the car chase began, records show.
Banker said Reynolds has a history of trying to outrun law enforcement from both states – “a symptom of disrespect for the law.”
The longstanding legal problems for Reynolds may be attributed to his drug problem, Banker said. Reynolds was given a chance to attend the Delancey Street Foundation, but he failed to complete the program and reengaged in criminal activity, he said.
Reynolds could have been sentenced to up to life in prison.
Officials said he still has not been arraigned on any state charges stemming from the high-speed pursuit or the New Hampshire warrants that the deputy marshals had in hand when the search began for Reynolds.
Assistant Federal Defender Carmen Brooks said in her sentencing memo that for her client his 14 months in custody “does not begin to satisfy repairing the fright he caused to the victims and the multiple communities who have lived through Mr. Reynolds multiple flights from law enforcement.”
She said Reynolds was hit hard by the death of his mother in 2020 even though she had been abusive to him due to her addiction to alcohol. He and his sister were both abused by one of his mother’s partners, Brooks wrote. After she died, Reynolds reduced his drinking, but increased his abuse of prescription and illegal substances, she said.
Brooks asked Judge Reiss to recommend to the Bureau of Prisons that Reynolds be jailed at a federal institution with a medical facility due to the gunshot wound, a blood clot in his calf and other health issues. He was recently hospitalized for a blood infection, Brooks said in court papers.
She said Reynolds has freely admitted his guilt in court, during recorded phone calls from jail and during the pre-sentence investigation interview.
Banker agreed to dismiss four other federal charges.
The deputy marshals first spotted Reynolds near Dalton, N.H. and the chase headed north on Interstate 93 before it came into Vermont, where in St. Johnsbury the pursuit turned south on I-91, officials said. Reynolds, who ignored the blue lights and sirens, pulled off the interstate in Ryegate.
He turned south on U.S. 5 and began to slow as he began to run out of fuel near 6165 Ryegate Road. He began waving the .357 magnum revolver out the window and fired at least one round over his shoulder at the federal marshals as he continued to drive, records show. They returned fire.
When Reynolds emerged from the Jetta he refused to comply with the commands of the marshals service, Banker said in his sentencing memo. The Ruger revolver was found in the center console of the New Hampshire-registered Jetta.
A .22-caliber rifle, various .357-caliber and .22-caliber bullets, two 12-gauge shotgun shells, and drug paraphernalia also were found in the car, Banker said.
Reynolds was well known to police on both sides of the Connecticut River. He was the target of a Vermont State Police SWAT team effort in August 2024 in Ryegate for an arrest warrant from Bradford Police.
Bradford Police also had reported about 8 a.m. Jan. 17, 2024 the department encountered a 2007 maroon Ford Fusion parked in the Bradford Mini-Mart parking lot and recognized it as being possibly involved in a recent vehicle pursuit. Officers also observed the driver slumped over in the front seat. Upon contacting the driver, Reynolds, then 35 of Groton, police observed several weapons in the car including a .22-caliber rifle on the passenger seat, records show.
Reynolds was ordered from the car and detained. This resulted in the discovery of two other firearms, a pistol carried by Reynolds and a .22 revolver he was concealing underneath him in the driver’s seat, Bradford Sgt. David Shaffer said in a news release.
Bradford Police arrested Reynolds for suspicion of DUI — drugs, and subsequently he was found to be in possession of both suspected heroin and crystal methamphetamine, police said. He was processed and subsequently released on a citation ordering him to appear in Vermont Superior Court in Chelsea on March 13, 2024.
In June 2023, Haverhill N.H. Police arrested Reynolds, who was living in Woodsville, N.H. at the time, on 23 charges, including for eight counts of being a felon in possession of a firearm and three counts of criminal threatening a person, the Journal Opinion newspaper in Bradford reported.