A 29-year-old Waldoboro man has been sentenced to 3 1/2 years in prison for robbing a 16-year-old alleged oxycodone dealer in Nobleboro in January 2013.
Joshua W. Ellis also assaulted the boy and stole money from him. He was arrested in Florida four months later.
Statements by the 16-year-old, a Bremen resident, and by Lincoln County Sheriff’s Deputy Aaron Beck describe the boy’s account of the robbery.
The 16-year-old was at a 20-year-old acquaintance’s Nobleboro home Friday afternoon, January 25, 2013.
The boy said they were sitting on the couch, about to play a video game, when he “heard a boom” and “two guys in face masks and a gun” came through the door, “smashed me with the butt end of the gun,” stole his money and fled through the woods.
The men were wearing masks and Carhartt sweatshirts with the hoods up, the boy told police.
One of the men was holding a black BB pistol. He hit the 16-year-old in the face with the gun and grabbed the 20-year-old by his shirt. Meanwhile, the other man grabbed the 16-year-old by his shirt and “started punching him in the face,” Beck said.
By this time, the 16-year-old knew the men were Ellis and a younger man who the boy was also familiar with.
The men demanded money, and the younger man eventually found $650 in the boy’s pocket. The robbers then “ran out the front door” and toward a trail behind the house, Beck said.
The boy chased them and caught up to Ellis, who “took his mask off and told him to go back to the house or he was going to leave him in the woods,” Beck said.
Ellis admitted to the theft again in a phone conversation with the boy and asked him what he was going to do about it.
The boy reported the robbery to the Waldoboro Police Department. Beck and Deputy Matt Day responded to the department to speak with the boy. The left side of the boy’s face and nose were swollen, Beck said.
The boy and his friend were telling the officers about the robbery in the parking lot of the police department when Ellis’ alleged accomplice drove by, traveling south on Route 1.
The deputies and officers stopped the vehicle near the intersection of Routes 1 and 32.
The man told Beck he was addicted to oxycodone, but denied involvement in the robbery. He told Beck the 16-year-old victim also used and sold oxycodone.
The man told Beck he “wouldn’t put it past” Ellis “to do something like this.”
A Lincoln County grand jury indicted Ellis on charges of Class A burglary and robbery, Class B theft by unauthorized taking and Class D assault May 16, 2013.
Ellis was arrested in Palm Beach County, Fla. shortly thereafter, according to court documents.
Ellis waived extradition and was transported to Two Bridges Regional Jail in Wiscasset. His bail was set at $50,000 cash or $500,000 real estate. He remained at the jail until his sentencing.
He pleaded guilty to the theft charge in exchange for the dismissal of the assault, burglary and robbery charges.
Ellis will serve his 3 1/2-year sentence concurrently with a four-year sentence for violating his probation for robbing a Rockland woman’s home twice in January 2010.
Ellis and two other men, wearing bandanas and masks, smashed the glass on the woman’s door to break into the house Jan. 20, 2010, according to the Bangor Daily News. The robbers locked the woman in a room while they searched the house for money.
Ellis pleaded guilty to robbery, burglary, criminal mischief, criminal restraint, obstructing the report of a crime and theft in Knox County Superior Court in Rockland, Sept. 27, 2010, according to the Bangor Daily News. He was sentenced to seven years in prison with all but three years suspended.
The newspaper reported that Ellis’ defense attorney, Jonathan Handelman, blamed the robberies on Ellis’ substance abuse issues and said he hoped three years in prison would help Ellis get sober.
The Maine Department of Corrections lists Ellis’ earliest possible release date as April 19, 2017. He is in custody at the Maine Correctional Center in Windham.
The man the victim identified as Ellis’ accomplice was not charged. “It doesn’t appear there was enough evidence to charge him with the robbery,” Lincoln County Sheriff’s Office Lt. Michael Murphy said.
