BANGOR, Maine — The man charged with torching a Hancock Street garage in September was sentenced Thursday at the Penobscot Judicial Center to five years in prison with all but one suspended after he pleaded guilty to arson.
Detric Stanley, 30, of Bangor also was sentenced to two years of probation and ordered to pay $1,500 in restitution. He had been held at the Penobscot County Jail unable to post $50,000 since his arrest in October.
The sentence imposed was recommended jointly by the prosecution and the defense.
Stanley, who had been evicted from the apartment building near the garage shortly before the fire, entered an Alford plea because he did not remember setting the fire, his attorney, Jeffrey Silverstein of Bangor, said after the sentencing.
This type of plea — named for the U.S. Supreme Court case North Carolina v. Alford, decided in 1970 — is “a guilty plea that a defendant enters as part of a plea bargain, without actually admitting guilt,” according to Black’s Law Dictionary.
Stanley faced up to 30 years in prison and a fine of up to $50,000 on the Class A crime.