AUGUSTA — The man accused of robbing two Winslow residents at gunpoint had been partying with them not long before the incident occurred and apparently returned shortly afterward to return the woman’s cellphone.
Mark Anthony Kennedy, 47, of Winslow is charged with class A robbery — which carries a maximum imprisonment of 30 years — as well as aggravated criminal trespass, criminal threatening with a dangerous weapon and theft by unauthorized taking all in connection with an incident early Thursday morning on Halifax Street in Winslow.
The weapon apparently was a BB gun.
Kennedy made his initial appearance Friday at the Capital Judicial Center via video link from the Kennebec County jail.
Assistant District Attorney David Spencer asked that Kennedy’s bail be set at $400,000 with conditions that prohibit him from contacting the victims and going to their property as well as from leaving Maine.
Other bail conditions prohibit Kennedy from using alcohol and illegal drugs.
“He has an extraordinarily long criminal record in New York state,” Spencer told Justice Donald Marden. Spencer described that record in detail, saying that at one point, Kennedy had been sentenced to up to six years in prison.
Prior convictions included drug offenses and robbery.
“By his own admission, he was running drugs for the two alleged victims,” Spencer said. “He admitted threatening them with a BB gun; he meant to scare them.”
Attorney Lisa Whittier, representing Kennedy as lawyer of the day, said Kennedy has lived in Maine for the past two years, has worked at Walmart and Dunkin’ Donuts, and has a 4-month-old baby in Waterville.
She suggested bail of $10,000 with a Maine Pretrial Services contact. “He has no criminal history here,” Whittier said.
Marden set bail at the $400,000 requested by the state and said it could be reconsidered when an attorney is appointed for Kennedy.
An affidavit by Winslow police Sgt. Haley Fleming, which was filed at the court, says Kennedy had spent several hours “having a good time eating pizza, drinking soda and having rap battles,” with the couple named as victims in the charges.
Kennedy then left and returned, asking for his phone, but it was not located, so he left again.
Fleming’s affidavit says Kennedy returned about 15 minutes later brandishing a gun.
The 22-year-old woman named as a victim told authorities that Kennedy held the gun to her face and threatened to kill them, telling the couple to empty their pockets, get on their knees and give him everything they had.
The woman said, “Mark was on something,” Fleming wrote.
The woman told police Kennedy said, “Don’t make me kill you guys right now,” among other things.
She also told police Kennedy had heroin and crack cocaine in his car in a supermarket bag, that she knew him from their workplace and that she told Kennedy not to kill them.
Kennedy reportedly then fled with their cellphones and with $100 in small denominations.
The couple then went to a downstairs neighbor’s apartment to use phones there to call police.
While they were calling for help, Kennedy returned about 10 minutes later, put the woman’s cellphone on the ground and left again.
Police stopped Kennedy’s vehicle on Monument Street and arrested him, later searching his home for weapons. Kennedy told them he used a BB gun to threaten the couple, Haley said.
Betty Adams — 621-5631
Twitter: @betadams
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