Stonington robber broke into wrong apartment, police say

ELLSWORTH, Maine — A Franklin man convicted in 2008 of assault is facing the possibility of going back to prison for 30 years after he broke into the wrong apartment looking for drugs earlier this year and punched a 61-year-old woman in the face, according to police.

Morris G. Young, 25, is scheduled to appear in Hancock County Superior Court in Ellsworth on July 25 for a probation revocation hearing that could net him two years just for violating the terms of his release on the earlier assault conviction.

Young is accused of violating his probation by breaking into the 61-year-old Stonington woman’s apartment this past February and robbing her of prescription drugs.

As a result, he has been charged with robbery, a Class A crime that carries a maximum sentence of 30 years in prison and a $50,000 fine.

Young and an alleged accomplice, Catherine Carton, 33, of Sedgwick, each were indicted last month on charges of robbery, burglary, assault, aggravated criminal trespass and theft by unauthorized taking.

Young allegedly woke the victim in her bedroom at Stonington Manor on Feb. 9, 2012, punched her three times in the face, and demanded she give him her medications, according to an affidavit filed in Hancock County Superior Court by Detective Alan Brown of the Hancock County Sheriff’s Department.

Brown wrote in the affidavit that Young apparently was targeting someone else in the alleged Feb 9. burglary but broke into the wrong apartment. The victim told police that after she gave the intruder her medication, he turned on a light to look at the pill bottles. The man had a dark-colored cloth covering the lower part of his face during the incident, the document indicated.

“[She] told Lt. [Tim] Cote the male then stated “Oh my god” a couple of times and then fled the residence on foot,” Brown wrote in the affidavit.

According to William Entwisle, assistant Hancock County district attorney, Young has been in custody since being arrested for the alleged robbery on March 30.

Entwisle said Thursday that Young served six months of a 2½-year sentence he received after being convicted of assault in 2008 so he could go to prison for up to two years just for violating his probation.

Young’s defense attorney, Robert Van Horn of Castine, did not return a phone message left at his office Thursday afternoon.

The prosecutor said Young has other alleged probation violations. Young is accused of failing to complete mandated batterer’s counseling and of trying to steal a Bar Harbor storm sewer pipe in January of this year by prying it out of a retaining wall near the shore of Frenchman Bay, Entwisle said.

Entwisle said Maine law sets a lower standard of proof for sending someone to jail for a probation violation than it sets for finding someone guilty of new criminal conduct. But even if Young’s probation is not revoked, he said, the district attorney’s office intends to prosecute him for the alleged robbery.

“It’s an easier evidentiary hurdle for us,” Entwisle said of getting a defendant’s probation revoked.

According to the affidavit, the intruder left the apartment with the woman’s blood pressure medication and fish oil pills. Another woman later told police she had spoken with Young about the robbery and he had told her he had broken into the wrong apartment and had punched the woman inside, the document indicates.

The woman was injured during the attack and was treated at Blue Hill Memorial Hospital, according to police. Blood was visible on the floor of the bedroom after the alleged attack and “there was a significant amount of blood on the bed, pillow and sheets,” Brown wrote in the document.

The woman was released from the hospital and returned home while police were investigating the incident, the affidavit indicates.

Follow BDN reporter Bill Trotter on Twitter at @billtrotter.