Caribou man gets 235 months for robbery

BANGOR – A Caribou man has been sentenced to nearly 20 years in prison in connection with the armed robbery of an Irving Mainway convenience store in Fort Fairfield earlier this year.

Richard Clements, 24, earlier pleaded guilty to four counts: Hobbs Act robbery, which affects interstate commerce and carries a stiffer penalty; using and carrying a firearm in a crime of violence; possession of a stolen firearm and being a felon in possession of a firearm.

Clements was classified as a career offender as a result of the crimes. An automatic seven-year consecutive sentence on the second count, using or carrying a firearm in a crime of violence, increased considerably the actual time Clements will spend in prison. He was sentenced to 235 months.

The sentencing took place Oct. 15 at U.S. District Court in Bangor. U.S. District Judge George Z. Singal presided.

Clements was ordered to make $909 in restitution, an amount that will be split between him and his accomplice, Timothy Joseph Frost. Frost is awaiting a psychiatric exam before his sentencing will take place.

Clements also is known as Richard Starhursky, according to a court paper. The court document states that the robbery took place at about 5:10 a.m. April 18 when Frost and Clements came to the counter and paid for two packs of gum. As soon as the clerk opened the register drawer, one of the pair told her to keep the drawer open and to give him the money.

“He then pulled up his shirt to reveal a gun in his waistband,” the court document states. The pair took $81 from the cash drawer and $828 worth of cigarettes. When the clerk told them the Irving store didn’t have a safe, they locked her in a back room. They were caught within minutes of the incident, and a search of their truck revealed several cartons of cigarettes and cash. Police also recovered a .22-caliber handgun from a coat pocket on the front seat. The pair was arrested.

Before the robbery, Clements had been convicted of criminal threatening with a dangerous weapon and receiving stolen property. Both convictions were levied in 1998.

Also sentenced Tuesday was Susan Marie Hilley, 22, of Norridgewock who earlier pleaded guilty to embezzling $69,500 from her former employer, KeyBank of Skowhegan. Singal ordered Hilley to spend two months in jail to be followed by four months of home detention with electronic monitoring. Hilley also was ordered to make restitution.

The theft was discovered when bank officials performed an audit of each teller on July 18, 2001, in preparation for closing the bank branch, which was located in a grocery store. “Susan Marie Hilley went home crying before the audit was begun and told bank officials to contact her attorney,” a court document states. The audit revealed $71,561.35 missing from Hilley’s teller drawer.

While the actual amount missing is larger than the amount of money Hilley is responsible for, “the lack of regular audits by bank management and the fact Ms. Hilley stopped reporting shortages and overages after August, 2000 (without the fact being discovered)” makes any embezzled amount over $69,500 “impossible to verify,” according to a document filed at court.