February 12, 2025
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Woman charged in aiding inmate’s escape

BANGOR – State police have charged a Bangor woman for her role in the escape Tuesday of a Charleston Correctional Center inmate.

Melissa Grant, 26, of Bangor was charged late Tuesday night with aiding an escape, a felony crime, according to state police Trooper David Yankowsky.

According to Charleston Director Jeffrey Morin, inmate William McDevitt, 31, whose most recent address was in the Bangor area, walked away from the minimum-security facility sometime Tuesday afternoon.

McDevitt’s absence was noticed during a routine head count shortly after 3 p.m., Morin said. The facility was locked down and prisoners were sent to their rooms and interviewed. Local law enforcement agencies were notified and told to be on the lookout for McDevitt and a white car he was believed to have left in, based on reports from witnesses.

That information, combined with a review of telephone records for the days leading up to the escape, led authorities to Grant’s residence on George Street in Bangor, where McDevitt was located.

“We found out that [McDevitt] had made a call to Melissa Grant,” whose vehicle matched the description of the one seen near Charleston, Yankowsky said.

After he was apprehended, McDevitt was taken Tuesday to the Maine State Prison in Warren, where he is expected to serve out the little more than a year remaining on his two-year sentence, primarily for thefts and burglaries in Cumberland and York counties. Morin said, however, that the escape attempt could add up to five years to McDevitt’s time.

After she was charged Tuesday, Grant was arrested and taken to Penobscot County Jail in Bangor on outstanding warrants unconnected to the escape.

Grant was released on bail Wednesday, according to jail officials. Yankowsky said she is scheduled to appear in Penobscot County Superior Court next month.

dgagnon@bangordailynews.net

990-8189

Correction: This article ran on page B3 in the Coastal edition.

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