Bass Harbor man pleads guilty in crime spree

ELLSWORTH ? One day after he appeared in Bangor federal court, a Bass Harbor man was in Hancock County Superior Court on Wednesday to accept a plea agreement on state charges, including writing $10,000 in bad checks and trafficking in heroin.

David C. Faulkingham Jr., 37, pleaded guilty to two charges of negotiating worthless instruments and one charge each of trafficking in prison contraband, unlawful trafficking in scheduled drugs, criminal use of explosives, failing to appear in court and being a habitual offender.

District Attorney Michael Povich said Faulkingham was a “one-man crime spree” for about three years. In 2000, he was caught by police with more than 2 grams of heroin and illegal fireworks in his possession. Between July 2002 and March 2003, he wrote nearly $10,000 in bad checks to various businesses, including one check for about $1,500 to Wal-Mart in Bangor.

He also was charged with possessing marijuana while in jail.

On Tuesday, Faulkingham appeared in U.S. District Court in Bangor and was sentenced to 12? years in prison on a federal charge of conspiring to possess heroin with intent to distribute the drug.

In Superior Court on Wednesday, Justice Andrew Meade sentenced Faulkingham to six years in prison, to be served concurrently with his federal prison sentence, and to pay about $10,000 in restitution for the bad checks that he wrote.

After he is released from prison on the federal charges, Faulkingham will be placed on probation for four years on the state charges of negotiating worthless instruments.

Mead said the plea agreement is appropriate given Faulkingham’s opiate addiction and the “tragic and unnecessary circumstances” that came out of that addiction.