BANGOR – A Clinton man was sentenced Wednesday to 20 years in prison for his part in the armed robbery last summer of the Hannaford pharmacy in Skowhegan.

Because David Sanford’s extensive criminal history made him an armed career criminal under the federal sentencing guidelines, he was sentenced in U.S. District Court to seven more years in federal prison than his co-defendant.

His criminal record included 23 convictions, mostly in his native Massachusetts.

Sanford, 33, pleaded guilty in February to conspiracy to commit armed robbery, firearm violations and possession of a controlled substance with the intent to distribute.

“This was truly a terrible trilogy of drugs, firearms and robbery,” U.S. District Judge John Woodcock said Wednesday.

“This crime raised the concerns of people throughout the state who wondered if they could be the victim of a violent crime just by going to the grocery store,” Woodcock said.

Sanford apologized for his crime and said that his life had been a cycle of jail, alcohol and drugs.

“I don’t want it to continue,” he told Woodcock.

“This is a terrible tragedy I took part in,” Sanford said. “I would like to apologize face to face to [the victims] and tell them that I am sincerely sorry for what happened.”

Sanford, along his girlfriend Erin Hunter, 18, of Clinton and Terry Lynn Pelotte, 40, of Fairfield went to the Hannaford pharmacy on July 6, 2003, to steal OxyContin.

While Sanford and Hunter waited in the car, Pelotte went into the store and forced the pharmacist and another employee to open a locked box and give him 300 pills. Pelotte brandished a gun he and Sanford had stolen the night before from a blind man.

Pelotte was sentenced in February to nearly 13 years in prison and three years of supervised release after pleading guilty to robbery and gun violation charges. Hunter was sentenced in June to eight months in prison, eight months of house arrest and three years of supervised release after pleading guilty to being an accessory after the robbery.