BANGOR, Maine — An Aroostook County man was sent back to federal Wednesday for two years for violating his supervised release on a pharmacy robbery conviction in Vermont.
Chester F. Birmingham, 37, of Bangor, formerly of Patten, pleaded no contest in U.S. District Court to violating his supervised release by committing new crimes.
No contest pleas result in convictions.
Birmingham is scheduled to be sentenced Thursday at the Penobscot Judicial Center to 22 years in prison with all but 12 suspended for his role in a home invasion and two convenience store holdups in 2013.
He is expected to serve the sentences concurrently but will be sent first to a federal prison out of state that has not yet been designated, then, be returned to Maine to complete his sentence on the state charges.
He pleaded guilty in August in state court to three counts of Class A robbery and one count each of burglary and conspiracy to commit robbery, both Class B crimes.
In addition to prison time, Superior Court Justice William Anderson is expected to sentence Birmingham to four years of probation.
The sentence on the state charges was agreed to by Penobscot County District Attorney R. Christopher Almy and defense attorney Aaron Frey of Bangor.
Birmingham was on federal supervised release due to his conviction in federal court in Vermont in 2009 on one count of aiding and abetting in the robbery of a controlled substance. He was sentenced to five years and three months in prison for his role in the May 2008 robbery of a pharmacy in Swanton, Vermont.
In addition to prison time, Birmingham was sentenced to three years of supervised release and ordered to pay restitution of $2,753. He still owes $2,265 in restitution in Vermont, according to Assistant U.S. Attorney Todd Lowell.
Birmingham was released in March 2013, according to the U.S Bureau of Prisons’ inmate locator website. His supervised release was transferred to Maine in July 2013, according to documents filed in federal court in Bangor.
The charges in state court stemmed from three separate incidents in September 2013, according to a previously published report.
The first robbery was at the Checkout Market convenience store, located at 1492 Pushaw Road in Glenburn. It occurred about 1:25 p.m. Sept. 8, 2013, Penobscot County District Attorney R. Christopher Almy said in August.
Birmingham walked into the business armed with a knife and threatened the clerk, the prosecutor said. He went behind the counter and took cash out of the register.
The next night, Birmingham and two other men targeted a couple in Orrington the prosecutor said. Birmingham. Wearing a ski mask and armed with a box-cutter-type knife, he held a woman at knifepoint and took items from her house on Center Drive.
The final robbery charge on which Birmingham was convicted stemmed from the attempted robbery of the Garland Street Market in Bangor about 9:50 p.m., Sept. 19, 2013. Birmingham entered the store wearing a mask and threatened the clerk, Almy said.
The clerk thwarted the robbery when he hit a panic button and locked himself in a storeroom, the prosecutor told the judge. Birmingham left empty handed when he ran from the store after the alarm sounded.
Birmingham has been incarcerated unable to post $100,000 bail since his arrest Sept. 26, 2013. The time from his arrest until he went into federal custody in mid-November 2014 will count toward his state sentence. The time he has been in federal custody will count toward his federal time.
Birmingham also is facing an aggravated assault charge in Cumberland County related to an alleged assault in April while he was housed at the Maine Correctional Center in Windham.
The status of that case was not available Wednesday.