by Mike Donoghue
A convicted killer from New York, who has been living in Franklin County, has been charged with being a felon in possession of six rifles stolen from a storage facility in St. Albans Town last October.
Shane “SB” Hardy, 45, of Brooklyn pleaded not guilty to the felony gun charge when he appeared in U.S. District Court in Burlington late Monday afternoon.
Federal Magistrate Judge Kevin J. Doyle ordered Hardy held without bail pending further proceedings. The defense did not object to the request by the prosecution.
Doyle said pre-trial motions are due by Sept. 27.
Hardy was sentenced to 14 years in prison for manslaughter in New York in 1999, federal court records show. Details of the killing were not immediately available.
In the new case, Hardy reportedly paid for the six firearms through a combination of drugs and discharging drug debts, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
Hardy, who is known to move around in Franklin County, obtained the guns at the apartment at 100 Lower Welden Street where he was sleeping on Oct. 16, Franklin County Sheriff John Grismore said.
Hardy possessed six firearms, including half that were AR-15- and AK-47-type weapons, records show. They also note two others were semi-automatics, and sixth was a bolt-action.
While he examined and handled all six rifles, Hardy eventually rejected one of the firearms, which was resold, but later surrendered to law enforcement, Assistant United States Attorney Colin Owyang said.
Hardy kept the other five guns and fled before the Franklin County Sheriff’s Department could execute a court-ordered search of the apartment house on Lower Weldon Street, Owyang said.
Grismore said his deputies had quickly developed leads in the case and applied for the search warrant. The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, St. Albans City Police and the Vermont State Police assisted with the Oct. 18 raid. Grismore said he asked VSP to bring in its SWAT team as an extra precaution due to the substantial number of firearms involved.
Multiple witnesses provided supportive statements to investigators, including that Hardy had fled before law enforcement arrived.
Cell phone records confirmed Hardy was at the apartment or the area about the time he was charged with possessing the firearms.
Hardy is prohibited from possessing any firearms because of his felony convictions, including for manslaughter and assault with intent to cause physical injury with a weapon, both in 1999, and for attempted criminal possession of narcotics with intent to sell in 1995, records show.
The Franklin County Sheriff’s Department reported in mid-October several people were linked to the break-in and theft of the guns from the storage facility off U.S. 7 near McDonald’s restaurant.
About a half dozen local residents quickly faced state charges in Vermont Superior Court, Grismore said. One woman, who was aware of a gun collector with his weapons in storage, provided inside information for the break-in, he said.
“Several of these players had connections to defendant and his illegal drug trafficking, either as customers of or sellers for defendant,” Owyang wrote in his detention motion.
Owyang wrote Hardy had to be detained to protect the community. He also said Hardy had no known lawful source of income.
Hardy is believed to have floated back and forth regularly between Vermont and New York, Grismore said.
Hardy has been wanted in Vermont since a federal grand jury indicted him Dec. 21. He had been flying under the radar until Saturday afternoon when St. Albans Police arrested him while investigating an unrelated matter, police said.
Hardy was arrested after St. Albans Police responded to a complaint on South Main Street about 1:30 p.m. A car left the scene, but was stopped a few minutes later at South Main and Fairfax Streets by city police.
A criminal records check showed Hardy, who was a passenger, was wanted on a federal warrant, city police said.
He was later lodged at Northwest State Correctional Facility pending his arraignment in federal court.