BANGOR, Maine — A former University of Maine student convicted of breaking into the home of a campus police officer who refused to dismiss a parking ticket was sentenced Tuesday at the Penobscot Judicial Center to nine years in prison with all but seven years suspended.
Luke Cushman-Cole, 21, of Fletchers Landing Township, which is adjacent to Ellsworth, pleaded guilty in May to one count each of burglary, a Class B crime, and criminal threatening and criminal mischief, both Class D crimes.
In addition to prison time, Superior Court Justice William Anderson sentenced Cushman-Cole to three years of probation and ordered him to pay more than $360 in restitution.
“Seldom do I encounter such strong sentencing factors that go against each other,” Anderson said in imposing the sentence. “This is a severe offense and it has had a horrible impact on the family but the defendant has some mental health issues and his father forced him to commit robberies as a teenager.”
As a 17-year-old, Cushman-Cole was convicted of five armed robberies in Alabama. He told Anderson in May that his father forced him to do them.
The judge said Tuesday that the aggravating factors far outweighed the mitigating factors.
The victim, Alan Stormann, 66, of Old Town, in May urged the judge to impose the maximum sentence of 10 years on the burglary charge. The now retired lieutenant with the University of Maine Police Department told Anderson he, his wife and disabled son were home the night of Nov. 2, 2014, when they were awakened at 3 a.m. by a crashing sound.
“He was trying to get in through the living room window,” Stormann told the judge. “He was tangled in the blinds. I struggled with him and hollered for my wife to get my gun.”
The intruder was wearing a mask and holding what turned out to be a fake gun. In the dark, Stormann said he believed it was a real revolver.
Stormann told the judge that while his wife was on the telephone with a dispatcher, she handed him his rifle but it was not loaded.
“I had gone hunting the day before and (had) forgotten to bring the ammunition into the house,” he said. “I pointed the rifle at him and told him to get out of my house.”
Stormann on Tuesday declined to comment on the sentence but said that if the gun had been loaded, Cushman-Cole would not have been alive to face sentencing.
The defendant has been held at the Penobscot County Jail, unable to post $20,000 cash bail, since his arrest several hours after the burglary.
Cushman-Cole broke into Stormann’s home after the retired police officer refused to dismiss a $100 ticket for parking in a fire lane, according to a previously published report. Stormann said in May that on Oct. 15 he offered to drop the fine to $25 but Cushman-Cole was not satisfied.
In May, Tracy Collins, assistant district attorney for Penobscot County, recommended a sentence of eight years with none of it suspended and no probation.
Defense attorney Hunter Tzovarras urged Anderson to sentence his client to between five and six years in prison with two or less to serve.
He faced up to 10 years in prison and a fine of up to $20,000 on the burglary charge.