LEWISTON – Two-time fugitive Jesse Caron was indicted by the Androscoggin County grand jury Friday on drug, gun and other charges dating back to his first run from the law.
The 28-year-old Lewiston man, captured in California last month, was indicted on 12 counts, including trafficking in cocaine, possessing drugs including Ecstasy and Darvocet, possessing hypodermic needles, receiving stolen property, and possession of a firearm by a felon.
The latest charges are only the beginning of Caron’s legal woes. He is a suspect in an October rape at his Sabattus Street home. He is wanted in connection with robberies in Connecticut and California. Police say he has been trafficking in stolen boats and cars since late last year.
Caron remained in a California jail Friday pending his extradition to Maine.
Police believe Caron hitchhiked to California last month as the search for him intensified in New England. When he was caught in Redlands, near Los Angeles, witnesses said he was with another man during the alleged purse snatching. The second man was not caught.
Caron is wanted on a slew of charges, including the robbery of an elderly woman at Foxwoods Resort in Ledyard, Conn., last month.
In Lewiston, he has also been charged with passing bad checks and violating conditions of bail. Those charges were handed up by an Androscoggin County grand jury in June, less than four months after a statewide manhunt led to his capture.
Caron has been a suspect in the Lewiston area since late last year, when police began investigating a party at which a young woman claimed she was drugged and raped. That case is still being investigated.
Caron was one of 49 people indicted Friday when the grand jury rose in Androscoggin County Superior Court. Others indicted include:
• Michael V. Hehir, 21, of Portsmouth, N.H., and Richard Carl Hamilton, 33, of Lee, N.H. Each is charged with two counts of robbery, accused of sticking up the Bank of America on Sabattus Street April 5 and April 25. The men also face bank robbery and other charges in New Hampshire. Both men remained jailed in New Hampshire.
• Derek Kay, 43, of 43 Oxford St., Lewiston, on two counts of aggravated assault and a charge of violating release. He is accused of slashing his ex-girlfriend and her nephew with a butcher knife during an altercation on Ash Street on June 8. He was also accused of possessing a dangerous weapon after having been prohibited from doing so after a previous arrest. Kay remained at the Androscoggin County Jail on Friday.
• Gary G. LaBonte, 43, of 8 Cottage St., Lewiston, on six counts of unlawful sexual contact and four counts of gross sexual assault. He is accused of engaging in sex acts with a pair of young girls on several occasions between July 1998 and December 2004. LaBonte is charged with having sex with the girls, both under the age of 14, and with subjecting them to sex acts. LaBonte was free on Friday and was expected to be summoned to court.
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