A real estate investor from Bar Harbor with a criminal history that dates back to 1982 was sentenced Wednesday to serve two years in prison for assaulting a woman he knew in Orland.
Thomas Owen Alley, 59, received an overall sentence of seven years in prison with all but two years suspended. He also was ordered to serve three years of probation upon his release, and could be sent back to prison for up to five years if he violates his probation.
Alley pled no contest to multiple charges on March 6, after reaching a deal with prosecutors on the same day he was supposed to go to trial. With the plea, Alley was convicted of six charges, including the felonies of aggravated assault, criminal threatening with a dangerous weapon and criminal restraint with a dangerous weapon.
Alley asked for a stay in executing his sentence so that he could attend Easter Sunday services at his church, but Justice Robert Murray denied the request.
Alley initially faced 15 charges, including four counts of kidnapping, after he attacked a woman he knew in Orland more than four years ago. He was accused of choking the woman until she passed out and then threatening her with a handgun, according to court documents.
Alley committed the crimes over a period of roughly three hours on Nov. 6, 2018, at a home overlooking Toddy Pond in Orland, police said.
Murray also ordered Alley to pay $2,200 in restitution, which Alley already had paid in full before his sentencing on Wednesday.
Alley faced up to 10 years in prison on the felony aggravated assault charge, though as part of the plea deal reached by prosecutors and Alley’s defense attorney Jeffrey Silverstein it was recommended that Alley should serve only one to two and a half years behind bars.
Alley’s victim spoke for roughly 30 minutes at the sentencing, detailing the assault and how she knew Alley.
“I can still see the gun in the pocket of his vest,” she said, adding that Alley told her he was thinking about killing her. “I thought he was going to kill me at any second.”
Robert Granger, the district attorney for Hancock County, said that in February Alley notified his office that he planned to deny that he was in Bar Harbor at the time of the assault. With the help of police, Granger subsequently obtained cell phone location evidence that showed Alley was in the vicinity of the woman’s house when the assault occurred.
“l truly believe this evidence convinced Alley that a plea was likely his best option,” Granger said.
Alley is a commercial real estate investor in Hancock County where, through his company Worthy LLC, he used to own a building on Route 3 in Trenton that formerly housed the now-defunct Acadia Christian School. He sold that building last summer for $1.65 million, according to records on file at the Trenton town office.
He also owned a prominent commercial lot in downtown Bar Harbor on Cottage Street, which he later sold for $1.3 million.
The Bar Harbor man’s 41 year criminal record includes a variety of crimes all committed in Hancock County, according to records on file with the state Bureau of Identification.
His first conviction — criminal trespass from an incident in Ellsworth — was in 1982, when he was 19. Since then, he has been convicted for 13 other crimes including assault, disorderly conduct, criminal mischief, theft, criminal threatening, refusing to submit to arrest and violating a protection from abuse order. He has an assault conviction from each of the past four decades, but has faced minimal jail time. Alley was only ordered to spend a total of 10 days in jail for those prior assault convictions.