BANGOR, Maine — A Mount Vernon man admitted Monday in U.S. District Court to driving the getaway car for two pharmacy robberies in Augusta and Gardiner earlier this year.
Steven C. Chaput, 39, pleaded guilty to one count each of interference with commerce by robbery and pharmacy robbery.
His co-defendant, Rudger S. Ellis, 22, of Gardiner, who went into the pharmacies and demanded drugs, pleaded guilty last month to the same federal charges.
By pleading guilty, Chaput admitted that he drove Ellis on Feb. 7 to the Rite Aid on North Belfast Avenue in Augusta and on Feb. 18 to the Rite Aid on Spring Street in Gardiner. While Ellis went into the pharmacies at the back of each store and demanded drugs, Chaput waited outside in his green Pontiac Sunfire, according to the prosecution of events to which he pleaded guilty.
From the first robbery, Ellis obtained and shared with Chaput six bottles of oxycodone, according to court documents. They shared 11 bottles of the powerful painkiller after the second robbery.
Chaput and Ellis were scheduled to be tried this month in federal court in Bangor.
Both men have been held without bail since their arrests.
Sentencing dates have not been set.
Chaput and Ellis each face up to 20 years in prison and fines of up to $250,000. They also could be ordered to pay restitution to the pharmacies for the cost of the drugs.