BANGOR – A Bangor man will spend eight years behind bars for what state prosecutors are calling the largest crack cocaine case in the area’s history.

Robert Edwards, 28, received a sentence Friday of 15 years with all but eight years suspended after entering guilty pleas in Penobscot County Superior Court to felony charges of aggravated cocaine trafficking.

Justice Jeffrey Hjelm imposed the prison term, which the state prosecutor in the case called one of the stiffest drug sentences in several years.

“You made a very bad choice,” Hjelm told Edwards, an expectant father who was arrested in June when police found 58 grams of cocaine in a storage locker in Eddington. “It’s a heartbreaking situation, but one of your own doing when you decided to violate the law in a big way.”

The crack cocaine, rarely seen in such quantity in the Bangor area, prosecutors said, had a street value of nearly $12,000, authorities estimated.

Before recommending the sentence, Assistant Maine Attorney General Matt Erickson told the court that while he didn’t believe Edwards was using the drugs, his propensity to sell them should net him a harsh prison term.

“We have seen a disturbing surge in cocaine, particularly crack cocaine cases, in the Bangor area over the past several months,” Erickson later said in a statement.

“This sentence gives fair notice to others that selling cocaine is a serious offense and will be treated as such by police, prosecutors and the courts.”

As part of the sentence, Hjelm also fined Edwards $2,000, the same amount investigators found in his girlfriend’s bank account that the defendant reportedly admitted came from drug sales.

While both the prosecution and defense agreed on the amount of jail time Edwards should receive, his attorney, Donald Brown, told the court that the $2,000 fine would better be used by Edwards’ pregnant girlfriend to help support their new baby.

Edwards has prior convictions for assault and disorderly conduct in Maine as well as theft, entering an automobile, trespass, battery and drug trafficking in Georgia.

Upon his release from state prison, Edwards will spend six years on probation.