AUBURN — Nathan Parker will serve 30 months in state prison for robbing a Tim Hortons coffee shop in Lewiston last year.

Parker, 23, of Lewiston pleaded guilty to the robbery last month and was in Androscoggin County Superior Court on Tuesday for sentencing. He was seeking a suspended sentence, but District Attorney Norman Croteau argued that public safety demanded a tough sentence.

Croteau had asked Parker to be sentenced to three years.

The sentencing hearing, which was attended by a number of Parker’s family and friends who vouched for his character, was complicated by the fact that the robbery was committed while Parker was enrolled in Maine’s Drug Court, an option he had taken to avoid a six-year jail sentence for previous burglary and theft convictions.

Had he stayed out of trouble while participating in that rehabilitative court program, his underlying six-year sentence would have been suspended.

But, since he committed the robbery while under the restriction of the drug court, that underlying sentence was reconsidered and prosecutors asked for a tougher-than-usual sentence on the robbery charge.

Justice MaryGay Kennedy explained to Parker and his family that his sentence on the coffee shop robbery had to be significant because the court had already given him a chance to get sober and obey the law while under supervision of the drug court, and he committed additional crimes anyway.

On Dec. 5, Parker went in and out of the coffee shop on Sabattus Street several times before approaching the cashier with a note and threatening her if she didn’t give him all of the money in the drawer.

The cashier handed him $242, and he apologized for scaring her, saying, “Times are tough.”

A surveillance video showed Parker in the shop, going into the bathroom and buying a cup of coffee before handing the cashier the note. Police spent that evening searching for Parker, and when he was arrested Parker told police he robbed the coffee shop because he was “desperate for drugs and needed to pay a debt.”

In facing Kennedy, Parker said, “I feel horrible for scaring the cashier at Tim Hortons and I wish she was here so I could apologize.”

His oxycodone addiction made him “lie, cheat and steal from anyone and everyone, including the people who love me,” he said.

Since the robbery, Parker said he has been sober and has reconnected with his faith and is ready to “start walking the road back to a happy, healthy life with God in my life.”

Breaking into tears, he said “I owe a debt to my community that I intend to pay.”

Parker’s aunt, Jackie Conway, asked the court to give Parker a chance to redeem himself by imposing a lesser sentence.

“Nathan was just a sensitive, loving kid who got involved with the wrong crowd” after his parents separated, she said. Now, “he needs a chance to be with his family. All of us. And to show us the man he wants to be.”

Conway is one of Parker’s victims.

While visiting her, he stole a watch from her bathroom, but returned it after learning it had been a gift from her deceased husband.

He took the watch, Conway said, so he could get OxyContin. “It’s that darn addiction” driving his criminal behavior, she said, but she’s convinced he’s now determined to change if given the chance.

Parker’s attorney, Henry Griffin, made the same point, telling Kennedy his client “knows he needs to rebuild his trust” with family and with the court and “this is all about addiction.”

A sentence of probation rather than jail time would have given Parker an opportunity to seek treatment for his addiction, since he is covered by his father’s health insurance policy, Griffin pointed out.

But Croteau, in asking the court to consider a three-year sentence, said that the robbery charge may appear minor by itself, but Parker had already been given a chance for rehabilitation through the drug court process and chose not to, making the robbery “a very serious crime.”

Kennedy asked Parker what he thought he should serve, and he said he was prepared to serve 18 months on the original six-year drug court sentence but asked for a suspended sentence on the robbery conviction.

“I’ve learned my lesson,” he told Kennedy. “I know I’ve lied to you before, but I’m telling the truth now.”

“I don’t want to live my whole life the way I’ve been living it,” he said.

Kennedy, who is familiar with Parker through drug court proceedings, said she has seen a change in him since the robbery and he’s not as cocky or snarky as he once was, making her hopeful that he may thrive after he’s released from prison.

However, in imposing the 30-month sentence, the judge told Parker that the “burglaries and robberies in this community because of drugs is an epidemic. It’s rampant. … And we have to send a message that if you do this, you will be punished.”

In addition to the sentence for the robbery, the six-year sentence Parker was serving through drug court was suspended and he will serve three years’ probation after his release from prison. He was also ordered to pay restitution to the victims of all thefts, burglaries and the coffee shop robbery.

[email protected]