Glen Michaud said the crimes were committed to feed his drug addiction.
AUGUSTA – An Augusta man pleaded guilty to 69 burglaries Thursday, which occurred in at least seven counties including Franklin, Kennebec and Somerset. A state prosecutor said he expects Glen Michaud to plead to more burglaries when he is sentenced Nov. 21.
Kennebec and Somerset counties District Attorney Evert Fowle said Friday that the string of burglaries, which began a year ago, included town offices, stores, doctors’ offices and various other nonresidential burglaries.
Fowle said that Michaud, 41, admitted to doing more than 100 burglaries, including some that police didn’t know about. Fowle said he will ask for a 20-year sentence with 10 of those years suspended when Michaud is sentenced.
Through his attorney, Michaud told the court Thursday that the burglaries were committed to help feed his heroin addiction, Fowle said.
Burglaries began Oct. 31, 2002, and continued over the next six months in at least seven counties from Cumberland to Penobscot.
During that period, individual police departments worked on cases and it took a while for things to click into place, Fowle said.
Over that period, town offices in Carthage, Fayette, Mercer, Harmony, Starks, Farmingdale and Pittston, among others, were burglarized, and thousands of dollars in cash, checks and items were stolen.
Fowle said investigators got a break in the case when a woman responding to a burglar alarm Jan. 3 at Bear Hill Variety in Phillips saw a person in a Mercury Marquis in the area.
She got a description of the vehicle and a license plate number, Fowle said. He said that 77 minutes later a vehicle matching the description was caught on a surveillance camera at J & S Convenience Store in Manchester.
A person in the vehicle cashed in lottery tickets, which had been stolen from Bear Hill Variety, he said.
He also said that stolen items were found at a place where Michaud had stayed, including a cell phone stolen from USA Concrete in Phillips.
Michaud became a suspect and was put under surveillance, Fowle said.
On April 14, a burglary at the Monroe General Store was interrupted in progress when the owner awoke, Fowle said. Evidence discovered at the scene led the police to obtain search warrants.
On April 16, police executed eight separate warrants covering three locations and five vehicles.
Two of the locations included one for Michaud’s co-defendant in some of the burglaries, Chris Powell, 32, of Mount Vernon, and Powell’s girlfriend’s house.
Police confiscated a diary in which Michaud wrote down the burglaries he’d done and the ones he planned to commit, Fowle said.
Police had evidence to connect Michaud to 30 to 40 of the burglaries, Fowle said.
Fowle said that Michaud ended up confessing to more burglaries than police had evidence for.
Powell, who remains in jail, is expected to go to trial in December.
He faces federal charges as well as heroin charges.
dperry@sunjournal.com
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