MENDON — Police say a homeless man menaced campers with an axe at a campsite off Route 4 in Mendon.
Ralph A. Schneider, 61, pleaded not guilty Monday in Rutland County criminal court to three charges of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and one charge of aggravated assault with a weapon, all felonies. The charges carry a combined maximum of 30 years in prison. He was ordered held without bail.
Vermont State Police say they responded to a call at around 11:20 p.m. Saturday from a campsite near the Inn at Long Trail. A group of campers there described Schneider threatening to cut off their heads, according to affidavits, and hitting the roof of a car with the axe, damaging the binding of a ski that was in a rack.
One of the campers, 42-year-old David Chandler of Campbellsville, Kentucky, told police that he did not want to get Schneider “hemmed up” but that he feared for his life. Other witnesses described Schneider swinging the axe at Chandler as Chandler was pinned in the door of the car.
“Chandler advised that in terms of mortal danger, he (had) been in some harrowing situations with bears in the wilderness and he would call this on par,” Trooper Ryan Gardner wrote.
Gardner also noted in the affidavit that there had been complaints about Schneider allegedly trespassing at residences in Killington.
Police said when they spoke to Schneider, he smelled of intoxicants and denied threatening or attacking the campers or having an axe, saying he had only asked them not to shine their lights into his campsite. Police said they located the axe under a door mat near Schneider’s campsite.
In court on Monday, Deputy Rutland County State’s Attorney Peter Bevere said that Schneider’s living situation and the seriousness of the charges merited holding him without bail.
Public Defender Christopher Davis said the affidavit described “aberrant behavior,” that could be addressed through conditions of release, that Schneider wanted to pursue treatment options and had a wife living in Mendon, though she was “not a housing option” for Schneider. Davis also said Schneider might have an apartment available to him in South Royalton.
Judge Cortland Corsones called the number, seriousness, nature and circumstances of the charges “quite concerning” and ordered Schneider held without bail pending a weight of the evidence hearing, saying he could reconsider if the defense made “more concrete” proposals about housing or treatment.
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