Otis teen gets two years in $90,000 vandals spree

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ELLSWORTH – An Otis teenager was confronted Friday at his sentencing by four of his victims and told about the pain and suffering he inflicted upon them during a two-day vandalism spree last November.

William Smith, 17, admitted last month in Ellsworth District Court to breaking into more than 20 homes in Lamoine, Mariaville and Otis with two other teenagers and causing more than $90,000 in damage. Smith pleaded guilty to 34 charges stemming from the destructive rampage.

For his deeds, Judge Bernard Staples sentenced Smith to the Department of Corrections until he turns 20 years old. Smith will turn 18 at the end of the month.

“Stuff we accumulated for 41 years is gone because of you,” Lamoine resident Wayne Lawrence told Smith during the sentence hearing.

Lawrence told Staples that he had to replace every wall, ceiling and floor in his home after Smith helped rip a sink off a wall and caused $72,000 in water damage to his house.

Lawrence said he and his son, a dancer, together had built a dance studio in the home, which he had lived in for only two weeks before it was destroyed.

“It was completely ruined,” Lawrence said. “I can’t believe someone would do that.”

Dale McCurdy of Lamoine said that Smith helped stab four knives into a kitchen counter in his home and steal a computer. He said the vandalism to his house was relatively minor.

“The greatest damage that’s been done here is what you’ve done to yourself,” he told Smith.

Joanne Rauscher, who in July 2002 was driving in Sedgwick when Smith drove into her car head-on, also was in court Friday to confront the teen. Smith was put on probation in connection with this accident a few weeks before his and the other teenagers’ vandalism frenzy.

“Since I last saw you in this court, I’ve undergone another operation of the bone that was broken,” Rauscher told Smith. “I’m still dealing with what you did to me.”

Two other teenagers – Bryan Lennon of Ellsworth and Michael Tibbetts of Lamoine, both 18, – also face multiple charges in connection with the vandalism. Because Lennon and Tibbetts are adults, they are being prosecuted separately from Smith in Hancock County Superior Court.

Relatives and friends of Smith, six in all, wept silently in the District Court gallery as each victim stood before the judge to confront the defendant.

Smith broke down as he stood to apologize for his actions.

“I’m sorry,” Smith said, standing, as his attorney, Sophie Spurr of Blue Hill, sat next to him at the defense table. “I’ve straightened out. It’s not going to happen again.”

Smith started crying as he spoke, burying his face in the crook of his arm to hide his tears.

After the proceeding, Smith hugged his girlfriend over a courtroom railing before being led away in handcuffs by the bailiff to begin serving his sentence.

Spurr told Staples that Smith has the support of his family and that he had known Lennon and Tibbetts for less than a week before the damage was done.

Spurr said that since his arrest, Smith has cooperated with police and helped them solve burglaries that they did not know about. She said she hopes the experience will serve as a “wake-up call” for her client.

“He assures me that it has,” Spurr said.

The judge, calling Smith’s actions an “unprovoked, unmitigated rampage of destruction,” said that a sentence of less than two years would undermine the seriousness of Smith’s behavior.

“I’m sorry for him. I’m sorry for his family,” Staples said.

According to Mary Kellett, Hancock County assistant district attorney, all but $7,000 of the damage has been covered by insurance.

Staples also ordered Smith to pay $2,000 in restitution.

Kellett said after the proceeding that Smith probably would be incarcerated for eight to 10 months at the juvenile correctional facility in Charleston. Whether he serves any more time behind bars depends on his behavior during his two-year sentence, she said.

Kellett said she thought a sentence committing Smith to Department of Corrections custody until he is 21 years old would have been more appropriate.

“Things don’t change overnight,” Kellett said.

Smith, Lennon and Tibbetts were arrested last November after they drove up in a stolen truck to a state police trooper in Otis and complained that they had just been held at gunpoint.

An Otis man had pulled a gun on the teenagers after he discovered his house had been burglarized and saw the teenagers near his home. The man let them go after he could find no evidence they had been the ones who broke into his house.

The trooper, who was in Otis investigating the rash of burglaries, arrested the boys after questioning them about the incident.