A Boothbay Harbor man will serve five years and four months in prison for stealing a 1971 Chevrolet Malibu in Woolwich and driving to Missouri.
Ronald G. Fuller, 63, formerly of 57 Crest Avenue, was sentenced to four years for violating conditions of supervised release and another 16 months for transporting a stolen vehicle in interstate commerce.
Senior U.S. District Judge George Z. Singal sentenced Fuller Feb. 18 in U.S. District Court in Portland. Fuller had pleaded guilty to the charges Nov. 8, 2013.
He stole the Malibu from a Woolwich man April 8, 2013, almost two weeks after he walked away from his Boothbay Harbor residence during a March 26 search by the Boothbay Harbor Police Department and U.S. probation officers.
The search was part of a burglary investigation. Fuller has since been indicted on 59 charges related to burglaries in Lincoln County between January 2012 and March 2013. He is scheduled to appear in Lincoln County Superior Court Monday, April 7.
Fuller drove the classic automobile to St. Francois County, Missouri, where sheriff’s deputies arrested him at a campsite in the woods off a state highway April 10.
The deputies “recovered a large amount of cash and jewelry at the campsite,” according to an April 11 press release from the St. Francois County Sheriff’s Department.
Fuller was on federal probation at the time of the car theft. He was in custody at the Strafford County Jail in Dover, N.H., as of December 2013.
Fuller allegedly burglarized the Gold/Smith Gallery in Boothbay Harbor and Wiscasset Cottage Antiques, as well as 19 residences in Boothbay, Boothbay Harbor, Edgecomb and Southport.
He would often force entry through a door or window and steal jewelry and other valuables, according to court documents.
He has a long criminal history, with convictions for assault and battery in 1968, at the age of 17; breaking and entering with intent to commit larceny in 1973, burglary in 1975, theft in 1978, robbery in 1986 and firearms possession in 1998.
