Man goes back to jail for burning tropical fish Alleged theft from pet store violates probation

ELLSWORTH – Call it a case of jumping out of the frying pan and into the fire.

A local man got into legal hot water Thursday for stealing a tropical fish from a pet store and then burning it in a shopping mall ashtray.

Jhon Hallett, 18, had been out of jail for only two hours last month when he was arrested in connection with the incident, according to law enforcement officials.

Hallett had served 56 days in jail on multiple burglary and theft convictions when he was released on June 20. Later the same day, he went with two friends to a High Street pet store and stole the fish.

Hallett’s probation was partially revoked Thursday by Hancock County Superior Court Justice Andrew Mead. Mead ordered Hallett’s probation revoked for five days, but gave the Ellsworth man credit for the five days he served in jail after the fish-burning incident.

“He’s already served it,” said defense attorney Jeffrey Toothaker of Ellsworth, who represented Hallett at Thursday’s proceeding. “He’s done.”

According to police reports, Hallett and two teenage boys went to Downeast Pet and Aquarium at the Maine Coast Mall on High Street last month, two hours after Hallett had been released from Hancock County Jail.

At the store, one of the boys distracted the store clerk while Hallett and the other boy stole a Blood Parrot tropical fish, worth $20, out of a fish tank and left the business, the reports indicate.

A few minutes later, Hallett and one of the boys came back into the store and asked for a glass of water so they could put out a fire in an ashtray in the mall concourse.

The clerk doused the smoking ashtray with water and, after the smoke had cleared, saw the burned fish in the ashtray basin, according to police.

Within a few minutes, store employees called police, who tracked the trio to a nearby fast-food restaurant. After reviewing a videotape from a store security camera, which recorded Hallett and the boy going to the fish tank where the fish had been kept, police arrested Hallett for violating his probation.

Mary Kellett, assistant Hancock County district attorney, said Thursday that Hallett is serving two years of probation in connection with his burglary convictions. He was sentenced to two years on the burglary convictions with all but 56 days of the sentence suspended, she said.

Kellett said the state agreed to drop criminal charges against Hallett in exchange for his probation being revoked. She said Hallett has been cooperative with the terms of his probation since the incident.

Hallett or one of the boys set the fish on fire with a lighter, according to Kellett.