BRATTLEBORO – The wife of a man accused of chasing children in downtown Brattleboro with a machete said her husband was using the tool to hack out a campsite during their “stop on the map” in town.
“I never saw him use a weapon,” said Heather Wheeler, 51, who took the stand on Friday afternoon during the status conference for her husband, Adam Kniffin, 36, who pleaded not guilty Sept. 2 to aggravated stalking with a deadly weapon.
“We’ve used a machete many times to cut down bushes,” she said. “It’s not a weapon to us.”
On Sunday, Aug. 31, officers with the Brattleboro Police Department received a report of a man with a machete chasing children on Cherry Street.
“They’re safe,” a parent told the Reformer. “It is obviously unnerving. The police responded promptly and they did exactly what needed to happen.”
At the time of his arrest, Kniffin, who listed his address as the Econo Lodge on Canal Street, was held on $5,000 bail. During his arraignment three days later, he was ordered held without bail pending a weight-of-the-evidence hearing, which is scheduled for Wednesday.
On Friday, during a status conference, Windham Superior Court Judge Michael Kainen continued the bail.
Kniffin’s public defender, Dan Stevens, had asked the court to strike the bail, contending the language of the statute did not allow for it.
“The defense has a good argument whether or not this is a felony crime of violence,” said Kainen. “I believe it is.”
Kainen also said he was concerned that somebody “with a not insubstantial criminal record,” would abide by any conditions of release, noting Kniffin’s record includes “a serious breach of bail,” and violations of probation and parole.
Kainen said before the weight of the evidence hearing on Wednesday he will review the state statute to see if, as the defense argues, Kniffin’s actions did not meet the standard to hold him without bail.
“It’s a close call,” he said. “But it is a serious case. If the affidavit is accurate, the evidence of guilty is at least solid …”
During her time on the stand, Wheeler said they had been married for about five years but together for about 15 and that they had stayed at a number of homes of family members over the years.
Until recently, they had been staying at a family cabin in Sharon, she said, but had to move out and were staying at the Econo Lodge on a now-expired state-issued housing voucher.
“We were passing through,” she said. “This was supposed to be a stop on the map.”
She said on the day Kniffin was arrested, they went to look at a camping spot behind a convenience store on Canal Street and had to hack their way through poison ivy.
Wheeler said in all the time she has spent with Kniffin, she has never seen him act inappropriately around children and has never been violent.
After his arrest, Kniffin told police he went to a friend’s house on Pleasant Street then walked on Maple Street behind Thompson House and up Canal Street. He said he had gotten the machete from a friend and put it into the bushes because he was going to a store and didn’t want to bring it inside.
“The court can conclude this is a crime of violence,” insisted Windham County State’s Attorney Steve Brown. “Not only is he accused of having a weapon, but he also engaged in a course of conduct that falls within the stalking statute. … We have an adult male armed with a deadly weapon stalking children on the street.”
