A Chelsea woman has been sentenced to nearly two years in prison for her role in a 2014 robbery at an Augusta pharmacy.
Nicole A. Breton, 21, was sentenced Friday in U.S. District Court in Bangor to 21 months in prison, followed by three years of supervised release.
Breton faced up to 10 years in prison, $125,000 in restitution and three years of supervised release.
Breton in February pleaded guilty to being an accessory after the fact, which means she knowingly assisted an offender “in order to hinder or prevent his apprehension, trial or punishment.”
She pleaded guilty to helping Dominic Pomerleau after the Sept. 2, 2014, robbery of the Rite Aid store on Hospital Street. Breton, one of three people charged in connection with the robbery, was a passenger in a car driven by Lance M. Szady, 26, of Augusta. She also emptied pills from the bottles and threw the bottles and caps out of the car, and the three spent the night at her home.
Pomerleau in May was sentenced to seven years in prison and three years of supervised release after pleading guilty in the same court to pharmacy robbery and attempted pharmacy robbery in connection with the Hospital Street holdup and an aborted robbery the same day at a Rite Aid on North Belfast Avenue.
Szady pleaded guilty to robbery and is expected to be sentenced on Aug. 17.
Szady already has served a sentence in state prison for robbing an Augusta pharmacy in June 2010 and for multiple storage unit burglaries. Both he and Pomerleau, who was convicted in January 2012 of eluding an officer and sentenced to four years of incarceration, with all but nine months suspended, and two years of probation, were on probation at the time of the September robbery.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Todd Lowell said at Breton’s plea hearing in February that Breton was waiting for Pomerleau in the getaway car after he robbed the Hospital Street Rite Aid.
Pomerleau, Breton and Szady fled to Breton’s home, where they “spent the night consuming many of the stolen oxycodone pills,” Lowell said.
Szady allegedly told investigators he drove Pomerleau to the two Rite Aids.
Both Szady and Breton told investigators that they and Pomerleau had been swimming at Breton’s aunt’s residence in Augusta and left in Szady’s car, stopping first at McDonald’s on Bangor Street, where she got paper and a pen. Pomerleau then wrote on it, she said.
The failed robbery attempt occurred at 5:30 p.m. at the Rite Aid on North Belfast Avenue, where Pomerleau handed the pharmacist a note that read: “I have a gun. Don’t push the button or I’ll shoot,” according to an affidavit filed by FBI Special Agent Cameron Mizell.
The robber demanded the painkiller oxycodone and Ritalin, which is a brand name for methylphenidate, a stimulant used to treat attention deficit-hyperactivity disorder.
The affidavit did not say whether Pomerleau actually had a gun.
“Hurry,” the note said. “Make it a minute or less. Act normal.”
Mizell wrote that the phone rang as the pharmacist was getting the pills, at which point the robber ran out of the store before getting the pills.
“Witnesses provided a description of the man,” Mizell wrote. “That description included information about distinctive tattoos on the man’s arms and neck.”
Pomerleau has a variety of tattoos, including a large star on his neck, that are clearly visible in a variety of posts on his Facebook page.
About 20 minutes after the first robbery, a man wearing a T-shirt of a different color robbed the Rite Aid on Hospital Street.
The man again approached the pharmacy counter with a note that threatened the use of a gun and demanded oxycodone, Mizell wrote.
The robber was given pills and fled the store. Witnesses’ descriptions of the robber, including the distinctive tattoos, matched those provided after the first robbery, Mizell wrote.
Craig Crosby — 621-5642
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