HOULTON, Maine — Now that the state has secured a conviction against the 22-year-old who murdered three people in Amity almost two years ago, another man charged in connection with the crimes will be sentenced.
Deputy Attorney General William Stokes, who helped convict Thayne Ormsby on three counts of murder and one count of arson, said after the April 19 judgment was rendered that his office will be in court next month for the sentencing of 64-year-old Robert Strout of Orient.
“That is going to be our next step,” he said outside Aroostook County Superior Court in Houlton.
Stokes and Assistant Attorney General Andrew Benson spent close to two weeks presenting two separate cases against Ormsby before Justice E. Allen Hunter. Ormsby was convicted on April 13 in the June 22, 2010, stabbing deaths of Jeffrey Ryan, 55, Ryan’s son Jesse, 10, and Ryan family friend Jason Dehahn, 30, all of Amity. The victims were found dead about 27 hours after the killings at the elder Ryan’s home on U.S. Route 1, according to police. Ormsby also was found guilty of arson for burning Jeff Ryan’s truck after he stole it from the murder scene.
Because Ormsby also pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity to the charges, a second phase of the trial focused on his state of mind at the time of the crimes. and. He was found criminally responsible for the deaths last week.
Ormsby will be sentenced in June and is facing 25 years to life in prison on each murder charge and a maximum of 30 years on the arson charge. He remains in the Aroostook County Jail in Houlton, where he has spent nearly two years.
Strout also was charged in connection with the triple homicides and then arrested again in August 2011 on a drug offense.
The first arrest came in September 2010 when Strout was charged with hindering apprehension and arson for his role in helping Ormsby conceal evidence in the murder investigation.
In the weeks before the killings, Ormsby lived a short distance from the crime scene at the home of Strout and his wife, Joy Strout.
The 64-year-old told police in July 2010 that a bloodied Ormsby came to his home after the slayings and threatened to kill his family if he did not transport him to Weston to burn his bloody clothes and also to set Ryan’s truck ablaze. Strout also drove Ormsby to a bog where he disposed of the murder weapon.
Two days later, Strout drove Ormsby to his son’s home in New Hampshire, where he was arrested.
Ormsby has denied that he threatened Robert Strout.
Strout initially pleaded not guilty to charges connected to the slayings and was out on bail when he was arrested by officers with the Maine Drug Enforcement Agency in August 2011 and charged with aggravated furnishing of scheduled drugs and violation of bail.
Darrell Crandall, MDEA division commander, said that Strout gave his 24-year-old grandson Craig Strout-Desmond and Strout-Desmond’s girlfriend, Brianna Bonness, 24, both of Ellsworth, 170 tablets of the prescription painkiller oxycodone after the two came to his Orient home on Aug. 3. Acting on a tip, agents conducted a traffic stop and the drugs were found in a baggy in a console of the car. They were valued at about $3,400.
Strout, who said in court that he is disabled, refilled his prescription for 180 pills each month and then gave them to his grandson, according to Crandall. Agents developed evidence that Strout had furnished more than 150 tablets of oxycodone to Strout-Desmond on at least five separate occasions. The charge was aggravated because the amount of the drug furnished by Strout totaled about 8,000 milligrams.
Strout-Desmond and Bonness both were charged with trafficking in oxycodone and Bonness also was charged with possession of drugs and violation of conditions of release.
Robert Strout was offered a plea deal by the state in October 2011 in exchange for his testimony against Ormsby, but he ultimately was not called to the stand.
Under the agreement, Strout will serve a minimum of two years and faces up to four years in prison on all the charges.
He already has pleaded guilty to the four charges, but his sentencing was deferred until after Ormsby’s trial.
Strout has a prior criminal history, according to information revealed during a background check. He spent three months in jail on a felony charge of taking a motor vehicle without consent of the owner in 1966 and paid fines for interfering with an officer and disorderly conduct in the 1970s. Strout also was convicted of a number of hunting violations between 1986 and 2002, including trespassing, criminal trespassing, shooting from a motor vehicle or boat, discharging a firearm near a dwelling, hunting in a public way, reckless hunting, illegal possession of deer and littering. The violations were lodged in Hancock County.
Stokes said that he believes that Strout will be sentenced near the end of May, but the exact date was not immediately available.
64 years old and disabled but still doing his best to be a criminal……..Hopeless.
He deserves longer than 4 years.Why not charge him with ripping of Mainecare? Didn’t they pay for the pills he was selling?
Now charge him with accessory to murder or even active participation. That will overcome the difficulty with the plea agreement and sentence him long and hard.
Now comes Strout, Ormsby’s partner in crime, with his portion of ” Once upon a time.” Strout’s criminal record dates back before Ormsby was born. According to this story he has only spent 3 months at “crowbar motel.” Strout does not appear to be a model citizen. While out on bail he was charged with aggravated furnishing of scheduled drugs in August of 2011. Only then did Strout offer his version of what Ormsby did in order to save his own butt. Strout says Ormsby threatened to kill his family if he (Strout) didn’t help him dispose of evidence. Two days later Strout drove Ormsby to New Hampshire to the home of Strout’s son. Strout must have really feared Ormsby threatening his family when he drove him there and left him at his family member’s home!
Strout will serve a minimum of two years and faces up to four years in prison on all charges. A slap on the hand.
If and when his prison term is up, his Medicare/Mainecare ought to be revoked. I’m sure, as he is on disabilty, some form of government assistance paid for the oxycodone he was furnishing to his grandson. It’s quite apparent he wasn’t using them for his “pain” and there must have been some kind of cash flow involved.
He didn’t even testify, so the deal he made should be rescinded. After he spends the 30 years on the arson charge, he may not need any ocycodone. I say throw the book at him as well.
amen
Strout tells investigators that Ormsby threatens to kill his family if he did not help destroy evidence of the crimes. So, Strout then helps him and takes him to his sons house……. I would say Strout was real afraid of Ormsby….. RIGHT!!!!!! Wanting the truth to come out as many others do.
There’s a degree of evil in someone who will take a murderer to his own son’s house.
I like the way you think. Many of us feel the same way and have been waiting for Strouts day in court to come!!!
10 years should straighten him out..
I just hope Stout doesn’t pull the old “not guilty by reason of insanity” card. It’s just insane to try it.
an he probably will
It looks as though someone did not like my previous comment. Guess I struck a nerve….
the sensors are out, deleting comments
it would be nice if they shared the same cell…..
no no we dont need that we need them in diff cells so they can be paird up with big bubbas…they sould have nothing but the worst….
There are connections between Strout, the murder victim Ryan, and Ormsby that stretch from Ellsworth up into the county. Ormsby made very strange comments indicating he knew things about Ryan´s family members dating back years ago, and Ryan was married to Strouts daughter I believe.
Strout probably is in this up to his neck somehow and should probably be looking at more than what he is facing.
180 oxycodone per month!!! What is that doctor thinking?? He gave 150 and least 5 times to his grandson to sell at 3,400 per 180 pills. I would say he/grandson and girlfriend owe the state 17,000 for the FREE pills and I would say his doctor should pay a fine too!! Lock that drug dealer and his son and son’s girlfriend up!!!
WOW—I read your reply to me last week about Ormsby needing a cell mate and you were all self righteous….now you sound like you are out for blood over pills…..3 lives vs dealing drugs….. The 3 lives are worth more the 17,000. The pills are a non violent crime but murder is evil and violent. Why should anyone have sympathy for that is beyond me….
“He threatend to kill me and my family so I took him to my sons house?” Must not have liked that son?, B.S!.
“Under the agreement, Strout will serve a minimum of two years and faces up to four years in prison on all the charges”…..this is sickening….
Wasn’t this guy the only link to the people that were killed and the killer, Read he told Ormsby the victim was a drug dealer, which was never proven. Starting to think this was more a contract killing than anything else. And a possible sentence of 4 yrs for setting this into motion is a travesty.
Bingo! That’s what I think too. Let him rot there beside Ormsby. Maybe ‘contract’ isn’t the exact word, but I do believe he set the wheels in motion.
Another commenter here, told me a week or so ago, that she/he knew Ormsby as a boy and that he would go to great lengths for ‘adult’ approval. Now that we have some of Ormsby’s background, I believe that to be true. I think that Strout, being the upstanding citizen he is, put a bunch of bologna in that young man’s head and got him to do his ‘dirty work’. It’s not like Strout reported Ormsby to the police on his own!! 4 years is a disgrace, for sure!
Agree with that thought 100%. I was just reading this thinking, he told Ormsby that Ryan was a drug dealer, when he himself was a drug dealer. Technically, Ormsby should have killed Strout if he truly wanted to whack a drug dealer. This whole thing makes me sick.
Shoot this POS and the rest of his family and you’ll do the state of Maine a favor.