by Mike Donoghue, Vermont News First – republished from Caledonian-Record
BURLINGTON — A St. Johnsbury woman has been accused of buying firearms for a dangerous Hartford, CT gang member, who is charged in a homicide case in his home state and attempted murder in an earlier Caledonia County incident.
Elizabeth Pappalardo, 24, is charged with making false statements to licensed gun dealers during purchases in St. Johnsbury and Hardwick and also with providing the firearms to a person prohibited by law from possessing them, court records show.
Pappalardo bought a Glock 9-mm at SMD Outdoors on Railroad Street in St. Johnsbury on April 7, 2022, and a Glock 10-mm at Rite Way Sports on Wolcott Street in Hardwick on April 16, 2022, and turned them over to Paul Downer, 25, of Hartford CT, according to the federal criminal complaint. Read more about the Pappalardo case here
Downer is charged with murdering a grocery store clerk in Hartford on April 22. He also is charged with a drug-related shooting in St. Johnsbury. After St. J police arrested him in February, 2021, Vermont Judge Michael Harris released Downer on $5000 bail to live with his parents in Connecticut. Following the April 22 shooting, he’s being held on $2 million bail.
Categories: Crime
Well there you have it. Elizabeth Pappalardo the mud shark, accessory to murder, cools her heels, free as a bird while law abiding, Vermont gun owners take it in the butt one more legislative session.
Is anyone in Montpelier paying attention? Criminals don’t care about gun laws. Straw purchase or otherwise. But by golly, enacting more gun laws make us feel good about ourselves!
Let’s see how aggressively ag clark prosecutes this case?? Maybe as hard as she does for Our State Police that protects us?
Although not indicated in this abbreviated account, hopefully these are being sought in federal court, where the gun laws have some teeth. If she knowingly committed straw purchases for a violent felon, she should get the full 5 years in Club Fed…
Can we talk about it yet?
Yes but did she have the guns locked in a safe as well as the ammo locked in a seperate safe?
Not only that, to be a good citizen she waited 72 hours to give it to Downer.
Unless all EXISTING federal gun laws are being enforced to the letter, there is no basis for enacting any new restrictions at the state or local level. Federal gun laws such as those prohibiting straw purchasing to get around the instant background check are TOUGH and COMPREHENSIVE and address the most urgent need…to keep guns out of the hands of those who have demonstrated that they are not fit to be covered by the Second Amendment. Those who knowingly transfer guns to prohibited persons should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.