A Kennebec County man has pleaded guilty to hitting a man with a car and threatening to kill a Wiscasset woman and her 15-year-old daughter and blow up their apartment.
Justin L. George, 25, of Albion, hit Joshua Rivera, also 25, with enough force to break the windshield. The car traveled 50 feet before Rivera fell off the hood, according to Wiscasset police. Rivera sustained arm and leg fractures.
George pleaded guilty to felony reckless conduct and misdemeanor terrorizing in Lincoln County Superior Court in Wiscasset, Monday, June 2. The state dismissed a charge of class A elevated aggravated assault, a felony.
George was sentenced to five years, all suspended, on the reckless conduct charge, with a concurrent sentence of 60 days, also suspended, on the terrorizing charge. He will serve two years of probation and pay a $55 fine.
George will serve the sentence consecutively to an 18-month prison sentence for a probation violation in Kennebec County, Assistant District Attorney Andrew Wright said.
Thus, George will serve 18 months in prison and two years of probation for the Kennebec County matter and two more years of probation for the Lincoln County charges.
If he violates probation, he could return to prison for up to the full five-year term. His probation conditions prohibit contact with the victims of his crimes.
George and his girlfriend drove from Augusta to Sheepscot Bay Apartments in Wiscasset to confront the woman’s ex-boyfriend Aug. 26, 2013, according to an affidavit by Wiscasset Police Officer Donald Smith.
The girlfriend would later tell Smith she and George planned to confront Rivera about a complaint she filed against him with the Augusta Police Department.
George confronted Rivera and, during the confrontation, threatened the woman and her daughter. George said “he would return and blow up or burn down the apartment and kill them,” according to Smith.
George and his girlfriend returned to their 1998 Audi A4 to leave after learning the police had been called.
The Audi, with George at the wheel, “struck Joshua Rivera with enough force to cause Joshua to roll up onto the hood of the vehicle and into the windshield,” Smith said. “The vehicle continued approximately 50 feet with Joshua on the hood before he fell off.”
Rivera was transported by ambulance to Mid Coast Hospital in Brunswick and later transferred to Maine Medical Center in Portland for treatment of arm and leg fractures and a possible head injury, Smith said.
George and his girlfriend left the scene. Kennebec County Sheriff’s Deputy Michael Dutil located the Audi a half-hour later on the bridge between Randolph and Gardiner.
“The vehicle was out of gas and had extensive damage to the windshield,” according to Smith.
George had left the vehicle to buy gas. His girlfriend told Smith that Rivera had been “in front of the vehicle, trying to get (George) to exit the vehicle to fight,” Smith said. The couple started to drive away when George “swerved and struck” Rivera.
George did not return to the vehicle, but turned himself in at the Wiscasset Police Department the next day.
George was on probation for a 2011 robbery conviction at the time of the incident.
Early Jan. 2, 2011, George was stranded in Augusta after his car became stuck in a snowbank, according to the Morning Sentinel. Two men offered him a ride and, upon arriving home, George attempted to rob the men at knife point.
He was sentenced to eight years in prison, with all but 17 months suspended, and three years of probation.
