AUBURN — A Mexico man who had hoped to profit from setting a fire at a Livermore store last year was sentenced Tuesday to four years in prison.
Miguel Cedeno, 21, pleaded guilty in Androscoggin County Superior Court to arson, a Class A felony punishable by up to 30 years in prison.
He also pleaded guilty to a charge of attempted burglary stemming from a February incident in Farmington during which Cedeno broke the side window of a mobile home with the butt of a shotgun in an effort to gain entrance while the residents were inside. DNA from a sample of blood on the glass matched Cedeno’s DNA.
He was sentenced concurrently to three years on that charge, a Class B felony, punishable by up to 10 years in prison.
A prosecutor said Cedeno confessed to police that Erica Poland-Rolfe, an owner of The JP Corner Store on Pleasant Street in Livermore, had hired him to burn down the convenience store off Route 4 for the insurance money. She was charged with arson and criminal conspiracy.
He and another co-conspirator went to the store on July 26, 2011, with a can of gasoline and poured it down an air-conditioning duct and set it on fire. The fire was confined to that wall. Firefighters extinguished the blaze quickly after an occupant of the building smelled smoke and called 911.
Cedeno told police he was hired by Poland-Rolfe, who told him he would get a cut of the proceeds from the insurance payoff.
Cedeno is the first of the co-defendants connected to the incident to resolve his case.
He also agreed to spend four years on probation after he’s released from prison.
cwilliams@sunjournal.com
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- Miguel Cedeno
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