PARIS – A South Portland man convicted of burglarizing six homes, mostly summer cottages on Thompson Lake, will spend the next 10 years in prison.

An Oxford County Superior Court judge on Friday accepted a guilty plea to two counts of burglary from Timothy W. Richards, 40, in return for dismissal of separate charges of operating under the influence, operating under suspension, stealing a car, and trying to escape from the Oxford County Jail.

Richards’ sentence will be served concurrently with convictions on separate charges in Cumberland County.

Maine State Police Trooper John Hainey said Richards used a pry bar Sept. 10, 2001, to gain entry into the homes along the west shore of the lake in Otisfield and Oxford in a spree that began around 8 a.m.

In most cases, nothing was taken from the homes, which had been vacated the previous Labor Day weekend.

Hainey said Richards, driving a stolen car, began with homes on the Elliot Road, and broke into at least two on this road. He then burglarized six homes at Oxford Pines located off Route 121 about two miles north of the Elliot Road. Like the Elliot Road, these homes are located on the lake and are very secluded.

By this time, Lloyd Grover, who was renovating one of the Elliot Road homes, had contacted police to report a Bostich nail gun and a metal level as missing. Police from Oxford and Maine State Police Trooper Adam Fillebrown found sneaker prints and tire marks in their searches.

By 2 p.m., another burglary had been reported on Scribner Hill Road, in which a rock was thrown through the lower window pane on the door.

Around 11 p.m., Oxford Lt. Jon Tibbetts spotted Richards in the Wal-Mart parking lot in what later turned out to be a 1999 Mitsubishi stolen from Portland after that car owner’s home was burglarized earlier.

When Richards saw Tibbetts, he turned into a driveway and fled on foot, and got away because a train went by shortly after he fled. Inside the Escort, however, were the stolen items and a tire iron, including the sneakers that matched the prints at the burglary sites.

More than two weeks later, police learned from Richards’ girlfriend that Richards had fled to Florida. After the filing of Hainey’s Oct. 19 affidavit, Richards was arrested and brought back to Maine.

He spent 200 days in Oxford County Jail awaiting trial.

, and during that time attempted to escape by destroying a window in the jail.

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