BANGOR, Maine — When police posted pictures last week of a woman who allegedly robbed the local Wal-Mart store and her white getaway car, they didn’t know there was a second woman in the vehicle — one who the investigating officer knew, court documents indicate.
Wal-Mart loss prevention personnel notified Bangor police Sgt. Tim Shaw that they had video of a second woman exiting the suspect’s vehicle just two hours after the first two images were released, the sergeant’s report states.
Shaw knew the second woman from prior interactions, and after he located her, she told the sergeant that she was another passenger in the car with Michaela Sargent. She said that Sargent “owed her $100 for a drug debt,” but that she didn’t know Sargent was planning a robbery.
“Michaela told [the woman] that her mother had given/sent her a money order and she had to cash it at the customer service desk,” Shaw states in the probable cause affidavit for Sargent’s arrest, which is filed at the Penobscot Judicial Center.
Sargent did go to the customer service desk, but she didn’t cash a money order. She requested a pen and piece of paper, witnesses said, which she used to write a note that demanded $300 in cash and stated that “she had a gun and not to make a scene,” the affidavit states.
The cashier handed over the cash, then was forced to walk to the front of the store with Sargent who left on foot but got into a white car, the document says.
The robbery occurred at 9:35 p.m. on March 6.
By 4:30 p.m the following day, Detective Gary Decker and Shaw had tracked Sargent to a room at the Ranger Inn where they confiscated a bag of white powder that later tested positive for crack cocaine, the report states.
Sargent was allowed to leave the motel room while the officers applied for a search warrant, which was issued at 7:30 p.m. on March 7. The investigators, who included Officer Jeremy Caron, found the shoes and clothing that “she appears to be wearing in the video,” the report states.
Bangor Police released that detectives had identified the female suspect as Sargent and she turned herself in at the police station on Sunday, March 12.
Sargent was charged with felony robbery, a Class B crime punishable by up to 10 years in prison and a fine of up to $20,000, as well as misdemeanor unlawful possession of a scheduled drug for the crack found in the motel room.
She was taken to Penobscot County Jail and her bail was set at $10,000 during her first court appearance. She remained behind bars on Thursday afternoon, a jail official said.