Teen gets 21/2 years for 8-day crime spree

BANGOR – A 16-year-old Glenburn boy will spend the next 21/2 years in a juvenile detention center after pleading guilty Wednesday to 31 charges stemming from an eight-day spree of burglaries and car and truck thefts over four counties.

Andru Smart was sentenced in 3rd District Court in Bangor to be incarcerated until his 19th birthday in April 2009 at the Mountainview Youth Development Center in Charleston. District Court Judge Ann Murray also ordered him to pay a total of $3,500 in restitution to several of his victims.

The charges were outlined in 16 cases that identified a dozen victims for crimes Smart admitted committing, Penobscot County Assistant District Attorney Jim Aucoin said after the two-hour sentencing hearing.

The charges, included:

. Eight counts each of burglary and theft.

. Nine counts of theft by unauthorized taking.

. Two counts of theft of a firearm.

. Two counts of eluding an officer.

. One count of aggravated assault.

. One count of criminal mischief.

Exactly what triggered the teenager’s crime binge remained unclear at his sentencing, defense attorney Marvin Glazier of Bangor said Wednesday after the hearing. Drugs and alcohol were not factors, he said.

“The judge really tried hard, but it was not possible to pin down one specific issue,” he said. “The judge observed that it was a confluence of his age and some family issues.

“This was an excellent outcome for Andru,” Glazier continued. “If he’d been treated as an adult, he’d have been looking at five or six years, at least, to serve because there were so many felony charges.”

As an adult, Smart would have faced up to 30 years in prison on the most serious robbery charge alone.

The judge had cases from Cumberland, Kennebec, Waldo and Penobscot counties consolidated so they all could be dealt with in Bangor, Aucoin said.

The law is very specific about when a teenager can be prosecuted as an adult, according to the prosecutor. The person must be living on his own and, usually, have a significant juvenile criminal history. Smart was living at home with his parents and was a student at Orono High School and United Technologies Center, a Bangor vocational training school before he went on the crime spree.

Smart was captured in Hudson on Sept. 27 after allegedly assaulting a homeowner with an ax and stealing his car.

Reports that the teen might have a gun prompted some area schools to shut down or to continue with classes under lockdown.

Smart was arrested after a state police dog tracked him to railroad tracks in Hudson. They had converged on the area after a man was struck by the dull edge of an ax on the nape of his neck but managed to get Smart out of his Hudson Road home.