The Maine man wanted for the April 7 robbery of the Route 11 Rite Aid in Farmington, N.H., was charged with first-degree murder in Tennessee last week.

The Knoxville News Sentinel in Tennessee has reported that Scott Benjamin Pike, 28, of Lewiston, was arrested in connection with the stabbing death of Paul Cuthbertson, 55, of Oliver Springs, Tenn., last Thursday. Authorities told the paper Cuthbertson died after he was stabbed in front of his trailer in Green Acres Mobile Home Park.

Pike was charged along with Tristin Jane Dayon, 30, also of Lewiston, and Ronnie B. Hamrick, 21, of Oliver Springs, with first-degree murder, aggravated robbery, aggravated assault and conspiracy to make, sell or possess “Schedule II” drugs, which include cocaine and methamphetamine, the News Sentinel reported.

Pike has been reported as the assailant in the attack. The News Sentinel reported Cuthbertson was killed over an alleged botched drug deal, stabbed six times in a struggle with Pike, who twice demanded pills or said he was going to “stick him,” according to arrest warrants.

The News Sentinel reported the suspects met Cuthbertson at a laundry facility Thursday and agreed to go to Cuthbertson’s trailer “for the purchase of narcotics,” according to warrants. Hamrick told police he saw Pike making a stabbing motion with his arm during a struggle with Cuthbertson. After the incident, Pike got in the front seat of a van and Hamrick drove away, according to warrants as reported by the News Sentinel.

Pike and Dayon were apprehended a short time after authorities learned of the stabbing, Anderson County District Attorney General Dave Clark told the News Sentinel, and were arrested by officers in nearby Harriman. Hamrick turned himself over to authorities in Oliver Springs, the paper reported.

The Oak Ridger of Oak Ridge, Tenn., reported Tuesday the suspects were being held without bond at Anderson County jail.

Police believe Pike walked into the Rite Aid pharmacy in Farmington, N.H., on April 7 and made off with drugs and cash totaling $15,000 in value.

Willey said the robbery charge against Pike would go “on the back burner” as the murder charge is prosecuted. He will not be extradited back to New Hampshire to face that charge until the murder charge is resolved, Willey said.

The state of Tennessee has the death penalty.

LEWISTON — Scott Pike, 28, of Lewiston, facing a murder charge in Tennessee, has a decade-long criminal history in Maine, with multiple convictions in Androscoggin and Oxford counties.

Pike is from Rumford, but has lived in Lewiston for the past several years, most recently at 14 College St.

According to Maine State Bureau of Identification records, Pike’s first criminal conviction was in 2002, when he was 18 years old, on a misdemeanor charge of operating under the influence in Rumford. He was sentenced to serve two days in jail and fined $600.

The following year, he was convicted of two misdemeanors in Rumford, disorderly conduct and violating condition of release and sentenced to serve seven days in the Oxford County Jail.

In 2004, Pike was convicted of a single misdemeanor charge of assault in Rumford and served 60 days in county jail.

In 2005, he was convicted of a felony charge of aggravated assault and misdemeanor charges of criminal trespass and criminal mischief in Mexico.

In that case, according to Sun Journal archives, Pike and his brother broke into the home of a 23-year-old man on Granite Street. When the man asked the brothers to leave, Scott Pike assaulted the man and sicced his two pit bulls on the 23-year-old. The man was treated at the hospital for multiple dog bites and the dogs were quarantined.

Pike was sentenced to serve 120 days in that case, with all jail time suspended, and ordered to pay $8,144 in restitution to the victim.

That year he was also convicted of a misdemeanor disorderly conduct charge in Rumford and served two days in the county jail.

In 2007, Pike was convicted of four felony counts of burglary, one count of aggravated criminal mischief, and one count of misdemeanor charge of theft by unauthorized taking in Oxford County. He was sentenced to serve three years in prison, with all but one year suspended, and ordered to pay $5,000 in restitution. He was also sentenced to two years probation after he completed his jail sentence. That probation period ended Jan. 29, 2010.

In 2008, when Pike moved to Lewiston, he was convicted of a single misdemeanor count of theft by unauthorized taking or transaction in Auburn and sentenced to serve three days in the Androscoggin County Jail.

The following year, he was convicted of a misdemeanor OUI in Rumford and sentenced to serve seven days in jail. He was also fined $700, a steep fine based on his previous OUI conviction, and his license was suspended for three years, starting Feb. 8, 2010.

Most recently, Pike was arrested in Lewiston on March 17 and charged with domestic violence assault, a misdemeanor crime. He had not been scheduled for trial on that charge.

jmeyer@sunjournal.com

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