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Veronica Lewis hit with improvised blackjack, authorities say
By Mike Donoghue, Vermont News First
SOUTH BURLINGTON – A Washington County woman, who was the center of a major legal dispute in Vermont when State’s Attorney Sarah George dropped an attempted murder charge, only to be convicted by other state and federal prosecutors, is back in trouble with the law.
Veronica Lewis, 40, formerly of Worcester is facing a felony charge of aggravated assault with a weapon on another inmate at the Chittenden Regional Correctional Facility in South Burlington, officials said.
Lewis, who is serving a state sentence for attempted second-degree murder for shooting her firearms instructor in Westford in 2015, entered her prison cell and attacked her sleeping cellmate, Yvonne Frederiksen, 52, about 4:55 a.m. May 29, according to the Vermont State Police and Corrections Department.
The attack was made with a facility-issued tablet computing device and a lock that had been placed inside a sock, according to VSP Detective Trooper Vienna Gildea.
Frederiksen received serious injuries and was rushed to the University of Vermont Medical Center in Burlington. She has since recovered from her injuries and has been sent back to the correctional facility.
Lewis is due for arraignment at 8:30 a.m. Aug. 1 at Vermont Superior Court in Burlington.
It is unclear who will be prosecuting the case. The state police news release did not mention investigators working with Sarah George on the case over the past two weeks to determine the proper charge. Neither George or Vermont Attorney General Charity Clark returned phone messages.
Former Chittenden County State’s Attorney T.J. Donovan started to prosecute Lewis for the attempted murder in 2015, but later became Vermont’s Attorney General. George, who became state’s attorney in 2017, decided to drop three homicide cases, including the Lewis case on May 31, 2019. George said she believed she would be unable to get convictions in any of the three cases because each defendant claimed insanity.
Gov. Phil Scott asked Donovan, as Attorney General with concurrent jurisdiction, to look at the three homicide cases – much to the public dismay of a vocal George. George claimed both men were being political. Donovan’s office picked up all three cases and later obtained convictions for each. George got into a snit with the Attorney General’s Office by trying to get the car of one of their prosecutors towed from the courthouse garage during one of the murder trials in Burlington.
Lewis received a prison sentence of 20 years to life with all but 10 years suspended for the near fatal shooting of Darryl Montague at his business Vermont Target Sports on Pettingill Road on June 29, 2015. He was shot three times and left for dead by Lewis. Judge Martin Maley sentenced her about six years later after the legal fight unfurled. Lewis is due for release from her state sentence on Oct. 16, the Vermont Corrections Department said.
Federal Judge Christina Reiss also imposed a 6-year prison sentence in U.S. District Court in May 2021 after Lewis pleaded guilty to possession of a stolen .22-caliber firearm from Montague and a robbery count. Lewis got credit from June 12, 2019 and will be on 3 years federal supervised release once she is discharged from prison.
After George dismissed the attempted murder count against Lewis, former U.S. Attorney Christina Nolan had quickly charged her with three federal felonies before the Attorney General’s Office could respond. Nolan also overcame the insanity claim by Lewis while prosecuting the case in federal court.
Anyone with information that could assist detectives in this case is asked to contact Detective Gildea at (802) 878-7111.
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Categories: Crime
She’s a good person, just confused. Needs social workers wearing armor, not racist police officers
Another 7th-generation Vermonter causing trouble.
I really didn’t think we had heard the last from this one. What kind of bad luck does someone have to get her as a cellmate?
It’s just the mad dog syndrome, if she had four legs she’d be put down on the spot the first time, and we wouldn’t have this issue, but our legal system will keep this insane person on the books for years on your tax dollars, the only thing she needs is a cellmate that will put her in her place, but that person better sleep with one eye open.
Beautiful – This is a perfect example why the gun control argument that the Commiecrats keep pushing is a farce. Here is a woman who used a tool, in one case it was a gun to shoot her firearms instructor, in another case she used another tool an improvised blackjack, the old jail lock in a sock to bludgeon her sleeping cellmate. Hey all you Commiecrats, Progressives and Libtards do you get it yet?
SHE WAS THE WEAPON THE GUN AND BLUDGEON WAS THE TOOL.
Actually, if facts are known, Veronica is the victim in this case. Veronica was subjected to a relentless verbal racial attack by her cell mate. Veronica does have mental health issues, but the guards at the prison refused to protect Veronica from the racial attacks she was subjected to. Take mental illness and add racial attacks and you get the unfortunate result that occurred here.
FYI, I am a Trump supporter, not an idiot liberal. However, I have a step daughter in that prison and it’s important people understand the whole story.
Thanks, David.
I am a retired correction officer so I know if that was happening the administration should have put her in a single cell, a hospital cell or protected segregation. Their is no excuse for her violent behavior.
They aren’t “correction” facilities. The so-called “liberal democrats” can not even carry on a debate about reality, they just turn their collective backs on any real problems and throw money at imaginary issues of their choosing. Usually making things worse 🙄
I really dont think Trump endorses the idea that verbal harassment is deserving of a spontaneous vicious physical attack. He would subscribe to the old adage that “sticks and stones can break my bones, but names will never hurt me”. But common sense would dictate that if someone is locked up for a senseless, irrational act of violence against a hired firearms instructor, maybe you better not piss her off and then fall asleep. Veronica Lewis is a NUTJOB who should be kept isolated in a padded cell.
In the real world, this maniac would be locked in a cell with Sarah George, and our illustrious prosecutor can see what it’s like to sleep with one eye open.
Mental health mental illness blah blah blah.. this person continues to victimize others in an institutional setting. Let’s just keep pretending that this is ok, she is living her true and authentic life, and we need to accommodate it. Solution: this person would likely have a better life if they were medicated into a placid state, less victims too. But that may make some people feel bad.
Rather than allowing her to inflict violence and be a lifetime burden to Vermonters, why not give her a 1-way ticket to South Sudan? Make her, her identifying, people’s problem.
Will the next legislative session have us seeing a proposed bill requiring background checks and a three-day waiting period for the purchase of tablets and locks?