Chester man charged with home invasion

A Springfield native now of Chester who’d been due in court Tuesday to resolve a series of criminal charges with a plea deal instead ended up getting arraigned on five new counts and held for lack of bail.

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Chester man charged with home invasion Suspect allegedly shouldered his way through front door Tuesday, June 20, 2017 Eric Francis Vermont News Subscribe WHITE RIVER JUNCTION - A Chester man who’d been due in court Tuesday to resolve a series of criminal charges with a plea deal instead ended up getting arraigned on five new counts and held for lack of bail. Advertisement: Content continues below... Want to see your ad here? Nico Spaulding, 35, of Chester pleaded innocent Tuesday to felony counts of burglary of an occupied dwelling and unlawful trespass as well as to accompanying misdemeanor counts of driving despite a suspended license and violations of pre-trial release conditions. Spaulding was arrested first thing Monday morning after a homeowner on White’s Hill Road, which runs south from the Mack Moulding factory in Cavendish, called state police reporting that he’d just been awoken by a male voice outside his residence saying “Okay..one, two, three…” right before he heard “a large banging noise that shook the walls and glass in his house.” Alex Turco told troopers that he grabbed his hunting rifle and ran to his front door to find Spaulding standing in his mud room “looking surprised,” according to an affidavit filed with the court. “What the hell are you doing?” Turco asked, to which Spaulding allegedly replied “I’m just trying to get scrap metal,” the affidavit explained. Turco later told police he’d recognized Spaulding because the word “AMERICAN” is tattooed across Spaulding’s neck. Turco said Spaulding had stopped by his house a year-and-a-half ago looking for scrap and since then he’d “seen him on the news” because of a previous arrest, the affidavit noted. Vermont State Police Trooper Colin Shepley said Spaulding reportedly ran away and took off in a red pickup truck which was located a short time later in a driveway in Chester. A subsequent search of Spaulding’s pickup “revealed a large amount of scrap metal in the truck as well as numerous power and hand tools in the cab and bed of the truck,” Trooper Shepley wrote. Spaulding, who back in March was ordered not to drive any vehicles after he was charged in Windham County with drunk driving, negligent operation, and attempting to elude police, was arrested Monday morning after he admitted he had been driving around in his truck looking for scrap metal that morning, Trooper Shepley noted. Spaulding, who has two dozen relatively minor convictions on his criminal record, was ordered held for lack of $10,000 bail on Tuesday and he is now facing a maximum potential penalty of up to 30 years in prison just on the new charges he picked up Monday. The most serious of those being the felony home invasion allegation which carries a 25-year-maximum.