Bangor man sentenced in robberies

BANGOR – A Bangor man who admitted to a two-week robbery spree last year that included the theft of firearms was sentenced Friday in Penobscot County Superior Court to eight years in prison.

Christopher Roderick, 32, will serve that sentence before serving a 46-month federal sentence and four years of supervised release imposed Tuesday in federal court in Portland.

He was convicted in federal court of being a felon in possession of a firearm and for being a felon in possession of a stolen firearm, stemming from the robbery spree and, more specifically, the theft of two guns from a police officer in Boothbay Harbor.

Roderick, who has a lengthy criminal record that extends back to 1993 and who is on probation for an earlier theft, admitted to the robberies and was sentenced Friday to 10 counts of burglary that happened between Aug. 7, 2006, and Aug. 23, 2006, within several different counties.

The state charges list six counts from Penobscot County, three from Hancock County and one from Waldo County, four of which include the theft of guns. Roderick, who said in court that he is a heroin and crack cocaine addict, told authorities that he sold the guns to buy drugs. None of the weapons have been recovered.

“What that means is there are four handguns out on the street in the hands of drug dealers,” Greg Campbell, assistant district attorney for Penobscot County, said.

Campbell pressed Superior Court Judge Jeffrey Hjelm to impose a 10-year sentence based on the severity of the crime spree.

Roderick was arrested along with Bobby Joe Hafford, 26, of Brewer on Aug. 23, 2006, and, according to statements, Roderick was the driving force behind the crimes, Campbell said.

Both men were charged in connection with the burglary of the Boothbay Harbor home of Jody Lewis, a reserve police officer, where two handguns were taken. The home is a place where Roderick had stayed briefly the prior winter.

Only one of the guns taken from the Lewis home in Lincoln County, that of a .22-caliber semiautomatic pistol, was recovered at the home of a friend of Roderick, but the .40-caliber pistol, believed to be the officer’s duty weapon, has never been recovered, Campbell said.

During the Friday sentencing, Roderick, wearing a blue jumpsuit with several tattoos exposed on his arms, expressed remorse for his actions and apologized to all of his victims.

He told the court that his arrest last year was the first step in kicking his drug addiction.

“What I am sure of, is for the first time in my life, I felt free,” he said, with obvious emotion.