LUDLOW, Maine — The accomplice of a man shot to death by police on Sunday has been arrested in connection with an armed home invasion the pair allegedly committed in Bridgewater, police reported Tuesday.
Timothy Slaton, 48, was taken into custody at his home on Sunday and charged with burglary and criminal threatening with a firearm, according to Stephen McCausland, spokesman for the state Department of Public Safety.
Slaton made an initial appearance Tuesday morning in Presque Isle District Court via videoconference from the Aroostook County Jail in Houlton, where he remains incarcerated. Judge Bernard O’ Mara set bail at $5,000 cash or $25,000 surety.
Troopers earlier Sunday had gone to Corner Road in Bridgewater after a report of an armed home invasion. The homeowner told police that a man had forced his way in brandishing a firearm. There was a brief altercation inside and then the man fled in a vehicle with another person. The men later were identified as Slaton and 52-year-old Alan Gillotti Sr. of Ludlow, according to McCausland.
Slaton was arrested by members of the Maine State Police, who later went to Gillotti’s home on Smyrna Town Line Road in Ludlow to try to talk to him, according to McCausland.
An armed confrontation occurred with officers at the scene and Gillotti was shot and killed by Sgt. Joshua Haines.
As is standard with all police-involved shootings, the Maine attorney general’s office is investigating the incident and Haines has been placed on administrative leave with pay.
McCausland said Tuesday that he did not know whether Gillotti and Slaton knew the Bridgewater homeowners.
Details about the confrontation between Gillotti and police also have not been disclosed.
“All of that information is going to be part of an investigation by the attorney general’s office,” said McCausland. “It will be released in a report once the investigation into the incident has concluded.”
Slaton’s criminal history includes a conviction for criminal threatening with a dangerous weapon for an incident on Christmas Day in 2006, according to the Maine Bureau of Identification. The electronic record of his criminal history does not include details about the incident but shows that he was sentenced to 90 days in jail with all of the time suspended, and one year of probation. He later ended up serving 12 days in jail, however, for violating probation.
Slaton also had his driver’s license suspended for 90 days and was sentenced to pay a $500 fine and serve two days in jail on an operating under the influence conviction in 2008.
The state’s electronic records found no match when searching for a criminal history on Gillotti, but records on file in Houlton District Court show that Gillotti lived in Houlton for a time and was charged with assault in 1999. More information on that assault could not be obtained Tuesday.
The Houlton court records also show he was married for six years before divorcing in 2003 and moving to Ludlow. His ex-wife was granted sole parental rights for two children.
Online records of documents filed in U.S. District Court in Bangor show that Gillotti pleaded not guilty in September 2012 to a federal charge of possession of an unregistered short-barrel shotgun. He was charged with the crime after he called 911 on April 25, 2012, to report he accidentally shot himself in the foot with a .410-gauge shotgun. After Gillotti reported the shooting, state police troopers conducted a search of his home and also found a short-barrel 20-gauge shotgun hidden under a mattress.
Under federal law, it is illegal to possess a firearm with a barrel length of less than 18 inches and an overall length of less than 26 inches, unless the firearm is registered in the National Firearms Registration and Transfer Record.
While awaiting trial on that charge, Gillotti was arrested in November 2012, after he removed his electronic monitoring device in violation of bail conditions. While in federal court in Bangor to answer to the charge, U.S. Magistrate Judge Margaret Kravchuk revoked Gillotti’s bail and ordered he undergo a psychiatric evaluation. The results of that evaluation are not public.
Then, in May 2013, the gun charge against Gillotti was dropped by federal prosecutors after the courts ruled the search of his home was improper, thus suppressing the evidence — the gun found under the mattress.
Sgt. Haines is a 14-year veteran of the state police who served as a detective in the Major Crimes Unit for eight years in northern Maine before being promoted in September 2012.
The promotion to sergeant gave him oversight of troopers in Troop F in Houlton.