Man pleads guilty to threatening former girlfriend

CALAIS – A 20-year-old Baileyville man who allegedly terrorized his former girlfriend and threatened to kill her and cut the throats of her landlord and his children entered a guilty plea Tuesday in 4th District Court.

Louis Lucas was sentenced to 60 days in jail.

Judge John Romei also sentenced Lucas to another nine days in jail because while he was out on bail on the May terrorizing charge he committed another crime. On June 9, he stole boxes of cold medicine from a store in Baileyville.

But it was the terrorizing charge that got Lucas the 60-day sentence.

On May 3, Lucas, who had broken up with his girlfriend a few weeks earlier, continued to call her apartment on Monroe Street in Calais and allegedly threaten her. The couple used to live together in Pennsylvania.

“Mr. Lucas [also] called the [landlord] threatening to shoot and kill him and burn his house down,” Assistant District Attorney Joelle Pratt said after court. “He called several times [and said] that he was on his way with a knife and a gun and said he would stab his children and his dog. He also told the [landlord’s] oldest son that he was going to cut his throat and said that the police couldn’t help him as he was still going to kill his family and burn down his home.”

Calais police said earlier that the landlord got involved when Lucas tried to visit his ex-girlfriend’s apartment on several occasions and he ordered Lucas to leave. “The landlord got in the middle of his arguments with his ex-girlfriend and that’s why [Lucas] made the threat to kill the landlord and his two children and cut their throats,” police said.

Calais police contacted the Baileyville Police Department and asked them to arrest Lucas, who was living there at the time. When police went to a residence on Hillside Street, Lucas refused to open the door or answer the telephone. Police found a family member who lived at that residence who allowed them inside. Forty-five minutes later Lucas was in custody.

At the Calais Police Station after his arrest, Lucas said he was going to kill that “expletive deleted.” “When he was asked who he was referring to he said ‘you’ll know soon enough.’ The state felt that that was significant conduct,” Pratt said.

Pratt said that Lucas wrote a letter of apology before his being sentenced. “He apologized to the [landlord] saying in essence that his conduct was unacceptable and he apologized for it,” she said.

The assistant DA also noted that public safety needed to be taken into account in Lucas’ sentencing and that Lucas was on bail at the time of the terrorizing incident.