EXETER, N.H. (AP) – A 22-year-old man suspected of stabbing his friend from Maine to death two weeks ago had been released recently from jail.

William Hickman is charged with second-degree murder in the death of Joseph LeClair, 20, of Kittery, Maine. Hickman was high on crack cocaine when he stabbed LeClair two weeks ago, according to court records.

A month earlier, Hickman was released from the Rockingham County jail after serving eight months on an armed robbery charge. Hickman and another man were charged with armed robbery in 2004 after holding up two employees of the Fox Run Mall in Newington who were going to make a night deposit. The two also tried to rob a bank employee near an ATM in Kittery.

Hickman pleaded guilty to armed robbery in both cases and was sentenced to 18 months in prison in Maine.

In New Hampshire, he was sentenced to a year in the Rockingham County jail in a plea bargain, but thanks to good behavior, he was released after eight months. Had he faced trial and been convicted, he could have served seven to 15 years in state prison.

Rockingham County Attorney Jim Reams said Hickman got the plea bargain because he was considered the accomplice in both robberies, wasn’t the one holding the weapon and had no prior convictions.

“He was cooperative and admitted his involvement, and he was only 20 years old,” Reams said. “He got a year and a half in Maine, so we looked at it as a two-and-a-half-year sentence.”