PARIS — A Rumford man accused of robbing a woman at gunpoint in Paris last year pleaded guilty Friday to two misdemeanor charges.
Brian L. Welch Rumford Police Department photo
Brian Lee Welch, 38, admitted in Oxford County Superior Court to charges of reckless conduct and criminal trespass, after reaching an agreement with prosecutors.
He was sentenced by Judge Jennifer Archer to 364 days in jail for reckless conduct, but he will only have to serve 90 days. The rest of the sentence was suspended.
On the other charge, Welch received a fully suspended sentence.
Prosecutors dismissed felony charges of robbery, criminal threatening with a dangerous weapon and reckless conduct. A misdemeanor charge of unauthorized taking or transfer also was dismissed Friday.
Welch will be on probation for one year, during which he must have no contact with the victims in the case and is required to pay restitution of $240 to one of the victims.
He will be barred from having illegal drugs and dangerous weapons, including firearms, for which he can be searched at random and tested at random for drugs, Archer said.
Welch must report to Oxford County Jail on April 21 to being serving his sentence, Archer said.
According to court papers, Welch used a gun to rob a woman on Jan. 8, 2022, in Paris. He also was accused of stealing two “musical angels” and a glass basket.
He was arrested in February 2022 after local and state police surrounded an apartment building in Rumford.
Welch surrendered shortly after a state police tactical team ordered him out of a second-floor apartment, once the first floor unit was evacuated of tenants.
Police seized firearms and ammunition from the apartment in which Welch had been holed up.
He had been free on bail pending trial.
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