AUBURN — A Lewiston man who shot a trespasser in the hip last year was sent to jail Thursday after violating the terms of his probation by threatening to throw a tenant and her baby off a porch.

Kenneth Phipps, 57, of 17 Horton St. was sent to jail to serve seven days of his suspended nine-month sentence stemming from the shooting incident.

Phipps shot James DeHart, 45, of Bartlett Street in the hip one night in May 2008 when Phipps confronted DeHart about cutting through the back of the apartment building property where Phipps served as property manager.

A grand jury indicted Phipps on charges of attempted murder, elevated aggravated assault and aggravated assault. He pleaded guilty in January in Androscoggin County Superior Court to one count of reckless conduct with a dangerous weapon. The other charges were dropped.

Phipps was given a nine-month suspended sentence and was ordered to serve one year of probation.

After his release from Androscoggin County Jail, Phipps will continue serving his probation, a court clerk said.

According to a sworn affidavit by a probation officer, Phipps criminally threatened a tenant by saying he would throw her and her 9-month-old baby over the second-story porch. Phipps admitted to the conduct, court papers said. He told the tenant that, if she didn’t pay the rent, it would be the “last week that she was alive or the worst week of her life.”

The tenant told a Lewiston police officer that she knew Phipps was on probation for shooting someone and was “scared for her life,” court papers said. In speaking with the officer, Phipps denied making those statements, the affidavit said.

He was ordered to stay away from the tenant.

cwilliams@sunjournal.com

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