ROCKLAND, Maine — A 40-year-old Cushing man was sentenced Tuesday to serve four years in prison for his role in a Union home invasion.
The attorney for Paul A. Milardo said his client participated in the robbery last year to feed his drug addiction resulting from a medical condition that left him bedridden for four months.
Justice Jeffrey Hjelm sentenced Milardo to 10 years in prison with all but four years suspended. Milardo also will be placed on probation for four years upon his release.
Assistant District Attorney Christopher Fernald said the victim in the robbery supported the sentence agreement reached between the prosecution and defense.
Milardo and the victim knew each other, Fernald said. Milardo was at the victim’s home in August 2013 when another man forced his way inside, and armed with a gun, stole money and oxycodone prescribed to the victim. The victim initially refused to cooperate and was struck in the back of the head with the gun. The armed man then forced the victim into the bathroom.
The victim said he called out to Milardo to see if he was safe but heard no response and came out of the bathroom to find that both the armed man and Milardo were gone, Fernald told the judge.
Police stopped the vehicle, driven by Milardo, a short time later in Wiscasset after a brief chase, the prosecutor said. The money, oxycodone and about $4,700 taken from two strong boxes at the victim’s home were recovered from the vehicle.
Milardo confessed his role, saying he and co-defendant David A. Williams Jr., 24, of Middletown, Conn., had planned the crime and that Milardo texted Williams when it was time to commit the robbery, Fernald said.
Defense attorney Eric “Rick” Morse said Milardo never intended for his friend to be harmed. The victim suffered cuts to his head, knees, elbows and back. The gun was an air pistol, he said. Fernald acknowledged that no weapon was found but a receipt for an air gun was located in the vehicle.
Milardo participated in the robbery because he had become addicted to drugs again, Morse said. His client had been bedridden for three months with serious cellulitis on a leg and had feared he would lose the leg. During this time, Milardo became addicted again to opiates, Morse said.
Milardo had drug convictions from 2004 through 2006 but no criminal offenses for the subsequent seven years, Fernald said.
Morse said the victim has supplied drugs to his client.
But Fernald said that was only Milardo’s contention and that the victim has not been charged nor is there an investigation into him.
Morse said Milardo is an incredibly talented man who worked as a chef.
“His drug addiction keeps pulling him back into the criminal justice system,” Morse said.
A charge of eluding an officer and reckless conduct were dismissed. Morse said that his client delayed stopping the vehicle as they were being chased by police so that he could have time to talk down Williams, who was considering challenging the officers instead of surrendering.
Williams is free on bail pending resolution of his case. Milardo has been held in jail since his arrest.