AUGUSTA — A burglar nabbed at gunpoint by the property owner from whom he was stealing metal will serve five years in prison for a string of offenses.
Earl E. Moore, 41, pleaded guilty Tuesday in Kennebec County Superior Court to seven counts of burglary, six counts of theft by unauthorized taking or transfer and two counts of unlawful trafficking in oxycodone. He also admitted to trafficking in prison contraband and two counts of violating conditions of release.
The offenses occurred between March 22 and Aug. 1 in Augusta.
Moore was fined $800 for those offenses, an amount that brought his total of court fines to $3,565.
Moore declined an opportunity to address the judge about the offenses. He told her he didn’t know how he would pay the fines.
“Five years is a long time,” he said.
Between Jan. 1 and March 22, Moore repeatedly broke into a chicken barn in Augusta owned by Lionel and Raymond Rodrigue and stole thousands of dollars’ worth of material, including copper pipes, copper flashing, wire, stainless steel washers and sprinkler parts.
He was arrested April 26, after Raymond Rodrigue and a friend — both armed — sat in the darkened barn, waiting.
After they confronted Moore and forced him to the ground at gunpoint, they called police.
“I got tired of being ripped off,” Rodrigue said several days after the stakeout. “If they had more people like me in Augusta, there would not be all these robberies going on.”
Moore also was identified as a suspect after being viewed on a game camera the Rodrigues set up to try to catch the offenders.
Assistant District Attorney James Mitchell Jr. told Justice Nancy Mills that the Rodrigues indicated they were pleased with the sentence.
Central Maine Power Co. was the victim in thefts that occurred between March 30 and April 11.
In the drug trafficking offenses, Moore was caught selling 30-milligram oxycodone pills to an undercover investigator on July 8 in Windsor, and on July 26 in Augusta.
Moore had previous convictions for trafficking in drugs, felony operating under the influence, and a 1992 conviction for manslaughter, Mitchell told the judge.
In the latter case, Moore was driving on July 31, 1991, when his pickup truck flipped over on Sullivan Street in Berwick and killed a passenger.
Betty Adams — 621-5631
badams@centralmaine.com
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