BURLINGTON, Vt. (AP) - A Vermont man accused in the shooting death of his wife was indicted on mail fraud charges related to the theft of equipment from his former employer, the Agri-Mark Cabot cheese-making plant in Cabot.
Randall Swartz, of Orleans, pleaded not guilty to second-degree murder on Monday.
Federal prosecutors said on Wednesday that Swartz will be arraigned on the mail fraud charges in the near future.
The indictment says Swartz defrauded Agri-Mark for more than 10 years while working as a maintenance manager for the plant by buying hundreds of thousands of dollars’ worth of parts with company funds and using them to build machines sold in his side business selling maple syrup production equipment. He also is accused of having plant employees work for that business on company time. Swartz was fired from Agri-Mark in 2017.
The indictment accuses him of using U.S. Postal Service and private commercial carriers to deliver the fraudulently acquired equipment to the plant or his home.
Swartz’s lawyer did not return a phone call seeking comment.
Swartz was charged in the May 15 shooting death of his 54-year-old wife, Thea Swartz, who was found dead shortly after calling 911 to say her husband was pointing a handgun at her.
Randall Swartz was found with a gunshot wound to the torso. He was released on Friday from the Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center in Lebanon, New Hampshire, and taken to Vermont’s Southern State Correctional Facility in Springfield.
Swartz is being held without bail.
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