Corinna woman held in drug case released from jail after 45 days

BANGOR – The Corinna woman who, with her boyfriend, led police on a cross-country chase was released Monday from Penobscot County Jail after being sentenced to three years in prison with all but 45 days suspended.

Michelle Carmack, 27, waived indictment, pleaded guilty and was sentenced Monday in Penobscot County Superior Court on charges of conspiracy to traffic in cocaine and hindering apprehension. The 45 days is the time she already has spent in jail.

She also was sentenced to two years probation with a variety of conditions that include no consumption of alcohol or drugs, random search and testing for drug or alcohol use and counseling.

Carmack quietly answered “guilty” Monday when Superior Court Justice S. Kirk Studstrup asked how she pleaded. Dressed in black Capri pants, a black off-the-shoulder peasant blouse and plastic platform shoes, she declined to make a statement before being sentenced.

Carmack admitted Monday to driving Jason Belmer, 25, of Corinna to meet with cocaine suppliers and customers beginning in March. By pleading guilty, Carmack also admitted that she willingly fled the state with him on Aug. 22 after police warned her three days earlier that helping him could lead to her arrest.

Belmer was sentenced last month to 13 years in prison after waiving indictment and pleading guilty to aggravated trafficking in cocaine, criminal restraint, burglary to a motor vehicle and refusing to submit to arrest. He eluded agents with the Maine Drug Enforcement Agency and other police officers on Aug. 19 when they discovered nearly 8 pounds of cocaine buried in his grandmother’s pool shed in Corinna.

Assistant Attorney General William R. Savage, a prosecutor with the Maine Drug Task Force, told the court Monday that Carmack’s plea agreement balanced the extremely large amount of cocaine with the fact that there was no evidence that Carmack had had contact with the cocaine and that she accepted responsibility for her crime.

“There’s no indication that she has a substance abuse history,” Matthew Erickson, her Bangor attorney, told the court. “She was very deeply in love with Jason, and he used her poorly.”

Erickson also said Monday that Carmack was a victim of domestic violence.

Both charges to which she pleaded guilty on Monday are Class B crimes and carry a maximum sentence of five years in prison. Originally, she was facing similar Class A charges that would have carried a maximum 20-year sentence each, but they were dropped in the plea agreement with prosecutors.

Carmack was arrested on Sept. 4 after being stopped for speeding on Interstate 70 in Burlington, Colo., a few miles over the Kansas border. Belmer disappeared into a cornfield, but was arrested on Oct. 4 in Pittsfield where he had been living with a woman while Carmack was in jail unable to make bail.

Belmer’s grandmother, Jeanne Rogers, 64, of Corinna is scheduled to be arraigned on Nov. 23 in Penobscot County Superior Court on a charge of aggravated drug trafficking. If convicted, she could be sentenced to up to 10 years in prison.

Savage refused Monday to comment on how and from whom Belmer purchased such a large amount of cocaine. He also declined to speculate on whether there would be related arrests in the case.