White River Junction — A 35-year-old South Royalton man pleaded not guilty earlier this week to pulling a loaded handgun on two people in a Royalton driveway while he picked up his children from a birthday party.

Andrew Hildbrand allegedly aimed a gun at Crystal Osmer and her brother-in-law, Jasper Digby, at the Dairy Hill Road home on Saturday, according to a police affidavit.

Hildbrand pleaded not guilty on Monday to two felony aggravated assault with a deadly weapon charges as well as two misdemeanor reckless endangerment charges. A Windsor Superior Court judge ordered him held on $10,000 bail.

According to the affidavit, Hildbrand’s wife, Erin, was at the birthday party when he learned about a relationship between her and Osmer. Erin Hildbrand left the party to talk with her husband and together they returned to pick up their children. That was when Andrew Hildbrand confronted Osmer about the relationship and threatened her, according to the affidavit.

Digby then came outside and told Hildbrand to stop threatening Osmer, at which point Hildbrand allegedly “pulled out the gun, cocked it and pointed it at the two of them and threatened to kill them,” the affidavit said.

Hildbrand told his wife he pulled the gun because he felt threatened, the affidavit said.

Several children were on the porch of the home, roughly 40 feet away, when the incident took place.

Hildbrand, a former Marine, has a prior criminal record in California, including 2013 convictions for child cruelty and illegal possession of an assault weapon, the affidavit states. He doesn’t have a prior record in Vermont.

— Staff report