BANGOR, Maine — Two Bangor men whose trial on robbery charges began Monday pleaded guilty Tuesday in Penobscot County Superior Court to lesser charges after the victim in the case was charged with theft and threatened to recant his testimony, according to the Penobscot County District Attorney’s Office.
Derrick A. Day, 24, pleaded guilty to Class C theft and Stephen M. Warren, 25, who is serving a one-year sentence at the Maine State Prison on a Class C assault conviction out of Hancock County, pleaded guilty to Class E theft.
Justice Michaela Murphy sentenced Day to two years in prison with all but six months suspended and two years of probation. He is to begin serving his sentence in the Penobscot County Jail on Thursday.
Murphy sentenced Warren to five months to be served concurrently with his current sentence. He is expected to be released in January.
If they had been convicted of robbery, a Class A crime, the pair faced up to 30 years in prison.
Joseph B. Collins, 35, of Dexter testified Monday that on Jan. 20, 2009, he went to a Brewer motel to meet Warren. The two intended to go to Hollywood Slots to gamble, said Collins, who earlier that day had received nearly $7,000 in a tax return.
Collins testified Monday that when he got to the motel room, Warren was snorting a white powder. After Collins denied that he was police officer, Day put him in a chokehold until he passed out, the victim told the jury. When he came to, Collins said, he didn’t have his wallet or his cell phone and he chased Day and Warren in an attempt to recover them.
Collins’ wallet, which he testified had about $2,000 in cash in it when it was stolen, was recovered a few months after the incident. It contained his identification but no cash. He recovered his cell phone when he caught up with Day, Collins testified.
On Tuesday morning before the trial resumed, Murphy ordered that Collins be held without bail on an alleged probation violation. Collins also is charged with stealing more than $3,200 worth of tires in July and August from his former employer, Maine Commercial Tire in Hermon, according to Greg Campbell, assistant district attorney for Penobscot County. Collins is on probation for violating conditions of release on charges that resulted from a high-speed chase more than two years ago.
After Murphy ordered that Collins be held without bail, Collins told Day’s attorney, Julio DeSanctis of Bangor, that he wanted to change his testimony, Deputy District Attorney Michael Roberts, who prosecuted Day and Warren, said Tuesday.
Roberts said that it was better to bargain with the defendants for guilty pleas to lesser charges than to have the credibility of the victim undermined before the jury.
“Mr. Collins told Mr. DeSanctis that he wanted to change his testimony because he’d not gotten the treatment he felt he’d been promised on the new charge,” Roberts said Tuesday after the judge accepted the pleas and imposed the sentences. “Mr. Collins was not promised anything in exchange for his testimony.”
In his opening statement Monday, DeSanctis described what happened in the Brewer motel as a “drug deal gone bad.” The attorney said Tuesday that had his client testified, Day would have said that he and Warren planned to sell Collins counterfeit drugs and that Collins attacked Day.
“My client ended up pleading guilty to what he actually did,” DeSanctis said.
Day was convicted in November 2005 of burglary and sentenced to two years in prison, according to previously published reports in the Bangor Daily News.
Collins has a long criminal record, according to Roberts. Collins was arrested in May 2007 after he led police on a high-speed chase through Bangor and into Brewer at speeds of up to 90 mph in 25-mph zones, according to the BDN. Eventually, he turned into a dead-end street near the Brewer Eagles Club and was caught trying to run from officers.
If convicted of the tire theft charge, Collins faces up to five years in prison and a fine of up to $20,000, and could be ordered to pay restitution. If convicted on the probation violation, he faces up to 37 months in prison, the remainder of his 3½-year sentence. He previously served 21 days for an earlier probation violation, according to Campbell.
Collins also could face perjury charges, Roberts said.
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