LEWISTON — A local man will spend roughly a year in jail for his role in several area burglaries, including two at a Turner convenience store in December 2015.

William Thomas Currier, 26, of 592 College St. pleaded guilty Wednesday in 8th District Court to two counts each of burglary and theft stemming from incidents on Dec. 20 and 27, 2015, at Schrep’s Corner Store in Turner, where he took more than $1,000 each time.

Currier’s girlfriend, Richelle Ramsay, 23, a former worker at the store, distracted the cashier at the front of the store while Currier used a card device to unlock a door at the back of the store and get access to cash in a storage room, according to Deputy District Attorney James Andrews. He said Currier had learned from Ramsay where the cash was kept.

Currier was seen on surveillance video entering and leaving the back door each time, Andrews told Judge Susan Oram.

The first time Currier stole nearly $2,000; the second time, he stole more than $4,000, according to Andrews.

Currier was sentenced to three years, but that sentence was suspended. He was ordered to be on probation for two years, during which time, he must not have illegal drugs and can be searched and tested at random for them. He must get substance abuse counseling and is required to observe a daily curfew from 9 p.m. to 6 a.m.

That sentence follows an agreed-to sentence of six years with all of that time suspended except for 356 days in the Androscoggin County Jail in Auburn. The sentence is for entering a home on No Name Pond Road in August 2015 and stealing a generator, a chain saw, an engine, digital game cameras, spotting scopes, a machete, bows and arrows, a range finder and a jacket.

The total value of that property was estimated at more than $4,000.

Several of those items were traced to Currier by police through a local pawn shop, Andrews said.

For that crime, to which Currier pleaded guilty Wednesday, he also was sentenced to three years of probation in addition to the two years in connection with the Turner store burglary. He will remain on probation for at total of five years, Judge Oram said. During that time, he’ll also be barred from pawn shops.

Currier also was sentenced to 356 days in jail for receiving stolen property stemming from his part in the theft of jewelry from a Lewiston home. Currier sold some of the jewelry to a local store, police said. That sentence will be served at the same time as his other jail time, Andrews said.

Currier also pleaded guilty to theft by deception for claiming unemployment benefits totaling nearly $5,000 while he worked for a drywall company, Andrews said. He will serve a sentence of 356 days at the same time as his other sentences.

While the amount of restitution prosecutors said Currier owed his victims totaled more than $16,000, a judge reduced that amount by pointing out that, in the case of the convenience store burglary, insurance paid most of the store owners’ loss. Currier was ordered to repay the owners $500 in that case.

Currier’s attorney, Justin Leary, had argued his client would be hard-pressed to repay all of the restitution to his victims, considering he would be a convicted felon with a significant substance abuse problem when he left jail and has a 2-year-old son, for whom he’ll be required to pay child support.

cwilliams@sunjournal.com