DOVER-FOXCROFT, Maine — A Sangerville teenager admitted to robbing another juvenile at gunpoint and seven other charges against him in Dover-Foxcroft District Court on Monday.
Joshua M. Hanson, 15, was charged with Class A robbery, Class B burglary, Class B theft by unauthorized taking, Class C criminal threatening, Class C theft by unauthorized taking, Class D burglary of a motor vehicle, Class E theft by unauthorized taking and Class E unlawful possession of a schedule Z drug.
He is scheduled to be sentenced on Nov. 19.
Piscataquis County District Attorney R. Christopher Almy said Hanson will be sentenced to the Mountain View Juvenile Development Center in Charleston until he’s 18, depending on behavior.
“It’s an indeterminate sentence,” said Almy in a telephone interview on Tuesday afternoon. “If he does well in the program, the Department of Corrections has the discretion to let him out when they feel it’s appropriate. If juveniles do well in their programs, they get out sooner, if not, they get out later.”
In juvenile cases, admission of the charges is equivalent to pleading guilty in an adult case.
The charges stem from a string of burglaries in Sangerville on Sept. 9 and 10, when a dozen vehicles and two homes were burglarized.
Thousands of dollars worth of property was stolen including cash, a video camera, video game consoles, a guitar, a knife, a computer and a .22-caliber semiautomatic handgun.
In a juvenile petition filed with the Piscataquis County district attorney’s office, Piscataquis County Sheriff’s Department Investigator Guy Dow said his investigation was focused on Hanson immediately as witnesses saw him with a guitar, backpack and bags, but it would be nearly a month before charges were filed.
On Oct. 6, a deputy from Penobscot County Sheriff’s Department contacted Dow to find out if items recovered from a Carmel residence were stolen in any burglaries in his area. As it turned out, they were. A compound bow, a video camera, Sony PlayStation 3 game console, HP computer and several other items were recovered and returned to victims of the Sangerville burglaries.
The person who was in possession of the stolen items said he had gotten them from Hanson.
On Oct. 9 at about 2 p.m., a boy was walking along a trail behind the Hardwood Products building in Guilford when Hanson allegedly came up behind him and held the stolen handgun to the back of the boy’s head, according to court documents. Hanson ordered him to empty his backpack and not move until he was out of sight. The boy complied.
A concerned parent notified Dow of the incident.
Dow went to the defendant’s home, but no one answered his knock at the door, even though he could hear someone inside.
Dow soon caught up with Hanson in Guilford near Clark’s Restaurant. The 15-year-old ran into the woods when Dow yelled for him to stop.
Hanson eventually stopped and Dow handcuffed him.
Hanson was in the possession of marijuana, a knife stolen from a vehicle and a .22-caliber handgun that had been stolen from a residence a month ago. The gun, which was believed to be the same one used to rob the boy earlier in the day, was loaded, but there was no round in the chamber, police reported.
“The [expletive] thing doesn’t work anyway,” Hanson said to Dow, according to court documents.
Hanson was transported to Mountain View Juvenile Development Center in Charleston, where he has remained since being arrested.
District Attorney Almy praised Dow and the Piscataquis County Sheriff’s Department for the investigation.
“I’m glad that the sheriff’s department, particularly Guy Dow, put the time that he did into the case,” said Almy. “He was able to solve several serious crimes, and hopefully the incarceration of this juvenile will make this community a little safer.”
We will be reading about him in the future…
Im sure he is just getting warmed up.
Great !!!!
Good Lawd, what’s wrong with this boy anyhow? Too many gangster movies or what? Of course, it’ll turn out that the poor kid has ADD & ADHD and EIEIO because his mother was his oldest sister and his father was a YooHoo bottler who went apeshit. Did I miss anything, was he under-privileged or led astray? Might be as simple as the lad went-off and truly screwed-up, no need to try to blame anybody else.
unbelievable. Somethings gotta give
You can come up with all the acronyms…ADD, ADHD…..whatever….. The bottom line is this: If this child is ever going to be corrected, if he is ever going to learn his lesson, then you need to punish him or her, but not banish them from society. If you think about it ..society as it is, is what makes them…. divorce, negligence, and uprooting (moving all of the time) ….all play a role. And then they are supposed to interact in school…..and society? I’m not making an excuse, I’m trying to point out that facts are facts, people don’t treat people humanely, especially those that are most vunerable. The aged and disabled are not treated that much differently… If you want to change someone’s life, then you need to be positive towards change. Jail is climatic….but’s it’s also negative. By putting a kid in jail is simply telling him or her that there is no confidence in their ability to make a change.
Do you have a point to your always-mesmerizing ramblings! Too wishy-washy sociological mush for me. Are you lonely! Visit the local jail!
Ya know some people actually do change just by being imprisoned for their crimes , sometimes it takes more than once. But some people finally realize that crime doe’s not pay and decide to live a free life and earn their way like the rest of society-Not everyone in jail needs special help–As a matter of fact if they keep going back there after tasting the life of imprisonment–Then they belong there —Your comment makes little sense
what, exactly, do you think his punishment should be?
I was responding to another poster who simply said to throw the kid in jail and toss the key. My point is that if the Dept. of Corrections (emphasis on “corrections” is going to actually correct a person’s behavior, it’s more possible for it to happen in this instance rather than with an adult.
it’s a shame the jails for juveniles don’t have more programs to help the kids, so they would have a better chance when they got out. Then again, who knows if it would really help in the long run. So sad to see young people go so wrong…
Some years ago the governor of Massachusetts closed all the reform schools. of the 500o children confined in these places, it was determined that fewer than 100 needed “secure treatment.”
If you are interested “Last one over the wall” By Jerome Miller (Ohio University press) gives the total run down on this subject. “Children in Trouble, a National Scandal” by Howard James (late of the Christian Science Monitor) also discusses the issue of locked up juveniles and how we ought change the system.
The late Francsis Ordway former superintendent of the Lyman State Training School for boys in Westborough Massachusetts once stated: “For most confined juveniles it would be far better if they were never apprehended, tried and confined as too many of them get worse in our care”
in a lot of ways I agree with that last quote, unfortunately is seems nothing in the country ever really changes so I don’t have a lot of hope things will get better for them.
The boy is moving on up………………….
For over 4,000 of human history we have tried “The Punishment response” I guess slapping people who misbehave around makes the society feel good, but are we safer?
4,000 years of jailing, beheading, flogging, and humiliation, and what have we accomplished? Our society today is more crime prone, more hostile, and more seperated than ever in human history.
Maybe we should try something new?
If you knew where this kid came from and his family, you’d understand perfectly why this happened; the kid never stood a chance…………. You are a product of your environment, good or bad…………………….
What would you suggest we try differently?
Gee, you answered your own question… change the enviornment.
Great answer, but how? Families no longer can dicipline a child without fear of government intervention, and look where it’s got us……….. It seems that kids today have no moral value or sense of responsibility……………. I agree, the change needs to start with the family structure…………. Once an apple becomes rotten, it ultimately decays………. Maybe society needs to change; but again I ask; how?