BANGOR, Maine — A Hermon man was sentenced Friday at the Penobscot Judicial Center to 15 years in prison with all but six years suspended and four years of probation for his role in a robbery, in which a licensed medical marijuana grower was threatened with a machete, and an unrelated Stetson break-in a week later.
Steven Cronk, 31, pleaded guilty last year to robbery, a Class A crime; two counts of burglary and one count of theft, all Class B crimes.
In addition to prison time, Superior Court Justice William Anderson ordered Cronk to pay $1,000, $500 to each victim, in restitution.
Cronk’s plea agreement with Penobscot County prosecutor R. Christopher Almy called for him to serve no more than eight years in prison. Defense attorney Jeffrey Toothaker of Ellsworth recommended a sentence of eight years with all but two suspended.
Cronk tearfully apologized to the medical marijuana grower and begged for help with his substance abuse problems while on probation. Anderson made treatment a condition of probation along with his not having contact with the victims and not going to their residences.
Cronk had been held at the Penobscot County Jail since his arrest in early August 2014 unable to post $30,000 cash bail. That time will be applied to his sentence.
He had been out of prison for about 10 weeks after serving 3½ years for similar conduct, when he and transient John Branscomb, 28, went to the medical marijuana grower’s Hermon home on July 23, 2014, and threatened him with a machete, according to a previously published report.
Two days later, the men burglarized a Stetson home and stole medicine and a gun, which was not recovered, Almy told the judge Friday.
Branscomb was sentenced in March 2015 to six years in prison with all but two years suspended and four years of probation after pleading guilty to a robbery charge, according to a previously published report. He was ordered to pay $5,000 in restitution.
The men faced up to 30 years in prison and fines of up to $50,000 on the robbery charges and up to 10 years in prison and fines of up to $20,000 on the other charges.