By Christopher Williams,Staff Writer

AUBURN – A two-day citywide manhunt ended Saturday evening with the arrest of a man charged with the kidnapping, assault and robbery of a woman at a Lewiston store.

Rontrell Jarmareal Nelson, 20, a Twin Cities transient, was arrested at 6:15 p.m. after local police trapped him in a field behind Shaw’s Supermarket in Auburn.

He was charged with kidnapping, robbery and violation of bail conditions. He was later booked at the Androscoggin County Jail.

The Central Maine Violent Crime Task Force tipped off local police that Nelson was hiding in a 2-acre field behind the store off Turner Street. Efforts by a Lewiston Police dog to sniff out Nelson were thwarted by heavy winds and thick undergrowth, said Auburn Police Lt. Tim Cougle.

Officers from the Auburn and Lewiston Police departments and Androscoggin Sheriff’s Department converged on the area. Auburn Fire Department used an infrared camera and, later, a ladder truck in an effort to spot Nelson.

After an hour at the scene, police formed a human chain and walked through the field, finally flushing him out.

He offered no resistance, police said.

Police said Nelson confronted a woman, whom he knew, at a 7-Eleven store on Main Street in Lewiston Friday. She tried to flee. But after getting into her car, Nelson forced her to drive away with him, police said.

Nelson ordered her to drive about a quarter-mile, then assaulted her when she pulled to a stop, said Lewiston Police Lt. Thomas Avery.

Nelson reportedly stole $100 in cash and a cell phone from her, then fled on foot, police said.

Nelson had been arrested and charged with assaulting the same woman a week earlier, Cougle said.

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