AUBURN — A local man who tried to hold up a credit union and robbed a variety store using a knife was sentenced Monday to spend six years in prison after pleading guilty to three felonies.

Andrew Franco, 37, of 256 Main St., robbed Gowell’s Variety store on Hampshire Street shortly after 8:30 p.m. on Jan. 11, police said. Franco showed a knife to the clerk and threatened to cut her. He fled the store with more than $250 in cash, police said. He also had demanded the clerk give him a carton of cigarettes.

A witness told police that Franco tried to sell packages of the same brand of cigarettes as those taken from the store.

Franco wore a sweatshirt that matched the description of the one worn during the robbery, according to a detective. The store clerk picked Franco out of a photo lineup.

At about 6:30 a.m. on Jan. 22, Franco approached an employee of Rainbow Federal Credit Union in its Washington Street parking lot. He demanded the worker unlock the front door, police said.

He gained access into the building, but before he could access the vault, the employee fled the credit union and flagged down help.

Franco was indicted by an Androscoggin County grand jury on two counts of Class A robbery with a dangerous weapon, each punishable by up to 30 years in prison. He also was charged with criminal threatening with a dangerous weapon, a Class C crime, punishable by up to five years in prison.

On the robbery counts, he was sentenced in Androscoggin County Superior Court to 15 years in prison with all of that time except for six years suspended. On the criminal threatening charge, he was sentenced to one year, to be served at the same time. He also was ordered to serve four years of probation.

He was ordered to pay $343 in restitution to the variety store owner.

cwilliams@sunjournal.com

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