BURLINGTON — The wife of a man who was shot and killed in Hinesburg last July pleaded not guilty Wednesday to two felony charges for her alleged role in helping to plan the slaying.
Angela Auclair, 47, of Bristol was taken into custody Tuesday on grounds she aided in the commission of a felony and obstructed justice in the death of David Auclair, 45.
At Wedneday’s hearing in Chittenden County criminal court, Judge A. Gregory Rainville ordered that Angela Auclair be held without bail.
She faces a maximum penalty of $5,000 in fines and life without parole if convicted.
According to an affidavit of probable cause filed in the case, one week before David Auclair’s July 11 death, an ex-girlfriend of Auclair’s stepson, Kory George, overheard a conversation between George and his mother. The ex-girlfriend, Amanda Spinks, told police that during this conversation Kory George and Angela Auclair discussed killing David Auclair.
Spinks described a plan the two discussed: George would get a burner phone and call David Auclair with a request that he meet George by the side of the road, under the pretense that George’s car had broken down. The idea was to do it in a remote area of Hinesburg where gunshots would not be heard, according to the affidavit.
When Spinks later questioned George about the conversation with his mother, he told her, “My mom was joking,” the affidavit says.
George was charged earlier this year with illegally possessing the gun used in the shooting, but thus far no one has been charged with actually pulling the trigger.
Spinks told police that David Auclair had been giving George a hard time because he was selling marijuana and THC cartridges, and he wanted his kids “to do right in life.” She also noted that David and Angela Auclair’s marriage was “unraveling.”
The interview with Spinks occurred on July 22, though Auclair’s arrest was not made until Tuesday. It is unclear why police delayed making the arrest.
“[Spinks] is of course described as an ex-girlfriend,” Angela Auclair’s attorney, Maryann Kampmann, said, noting that Spinks and George had broken up sometime in May or June.
Kampmann then questioned “why there’d been a conversation between Ms. Auclair and her son in front of his ex-girlfriend about anything. I think the state’s case, which rests heavily on the statement from an ex-girlfriend, is not, in fact, that strong.”
To that point, the judge replied that regardless of whether that was true, the evidence was strong enough to meet the standards of probable cause.
Rainville noted that the threshold for probable cause is low, and that only two questions have to be answered to meet it: whether a crime was committed, and whether there is some evidence showing the person in question was responsible for that crime. In this instance, he said, those standards were met.
However, the judge said a full hearing on the weight of the evidence could be scheduled for later in the month, where lawyers on both sides could fully argue that point.
The affidavit reported that a day before the killing, Angela and David Auclair arranged to have dinner with James Synnott, a friend of David’s, at the Lighthouse Restaraunt in Colchester. Synnott told police that Angela left dinner early, before finishing her meal.
At 4:45 p.m., shortly before the men arrived at the restaurant, Angela texted Kory George: “Come to the mall because your gonna have to leave from here.” She texted again at 5:07: “Are at mall,” to which George replied: “Yeah in food court.” At 5:48, Angela texted: “No one here yet not till 6.” And at 6, George replied “ok,” according to the affidavit.
While the couple was at the restaurant with Synnott, surveillance videos and cellphone location data placed Kory George in the area of Synnott’s residence. George’s girlfriend, Kirsten Stillwell, told police that George’s mom had asked him to do an “errand” for her, and that she and a friend drove George to the house, which he entered briefly, before returning with a bag of “stuff.”
Police later learned that three guns had been stolen from Synnott’s residence. One of the guns was later found in a creek near the Auclair residence, and was determined to be the weapon that killed David Auclair. A burner phone was also found in the same area, according to the affidavit.
George repeatedly told law enforcement that he and Stillwell had been at a friend’s home in Burlington from 8 p.m. to midnight on July 11. But on Oct. 1, the friend, who had previously verified that alibi, told police that she wasn’t sure at what point George arrived that evening, and that when he did, he told her he needed ammonia to clean the gunshot residue from his hands and clothes, claiming that he had been teaching Stillwell how to shoot a gun and was worried about getting in trouble with his parole officer.
Cellphone location data from Stillwell’s cellphone placed George and Stillwell in Hinesburg, Williston and Monkton before and after Auclair’s death.
On the morning of July 12, Angela Auclair reported her husband missing to the Williston Police Department. She told officers that he had been called into work the previous night, though that was later determined to be inaccurate.
After the killing, Angela Auclair told Stillwell to lie to police and tell them she was at the friend’s house on the night of the murder, according to the affidavit. Stillwell told Auclair she did remember going to that house the night of the murder, but that she didn’t remember when she was there.
At the hearing Wednesday, the judge complied with the prosecution’s request to issue a no-contact order for a list of people that Auclair may try to reach out to from behind bars. Auclair’s lawyer said she and her client would review that list, and may contest certain names at the next hearing.
Auclair watched the hearing via video chat from Chittenden Regional Correctional Facility, where she is being held.
In the courtroom, more than a dozen of David Auclair’s friends and family members crowded onto two wooden benches to watch the proceedings. Afterwards, his sister spoke to the press about the latest developments in the case.
“We want to make sure … that whoever did this is put away and never sees the light of day again,” Melisa Semprebon said. “We need to make this about him. I’m not gonna mention her name. This is about David, the life he lived, and the life that was taken from him.”
She described him as a “motorcycle guy” who organized charities to help kids.
“If somebody said they didn’t have any wood, he went to my parents’ house, chopped down trees, and gave them firewood,” she said. “He didn’t have a lot, but what he had was available to anybody that needed it.”
Semprebon said his death came as a complete shock. She said she and her family knew there were a lot of “horrible things going on,” but “never suspected anything like this could happen.”
She noted that the family is very worried about how David’s kids will fare through the process.
“They’ve just lost not only their father, but their mother,” she said. “And no matter what she did, she’s still their mom. This is a really tough situation. So just lots of prayers out there for everybody that’s involved.”
“It’s a positive step in that we are getting some justice,” Semprebon said. “But it’s also not anything to celebrate. People are excited that this is happening, but you know, there’s nothing good here.”
Read the story on VTDigger here: Wife of man fatally shot in Hinesburg charged as accessory.