FARMINGTON — A District Court judge set bail Monday at $50,000 cash for a Livermore Falls man accused of breaking into a 75-year-old Jay man’s residence on June 28, tying his hands behind his back and robbing him of valuable collectible coins, his wallet and cellphone.
Eric S. Hafford, 34, was charged on felony counts of robbery, burglary and theft by unauthorized taking and a misdemeanor charge of criminal restraint.
A conviction on the robbery charge is punishable by up to 30 years in prison and a $50,000 fine.
Judge Charles Dow also ordered a residency curfew that requires Hafford, when he makes bail, to be at his Hunton Loop address between the hours of 8 p.m. and 6 a.m. Another condition of release is to have no contact with the victim or a second suspect that had not been charged as of Monday morning.
Dow told Hafford that the lawyer appointed to his case is Thomas Carey.
Assistant District Attorney Joshua Robbins told the court prior to bail being set that Hafford had a “pretty extensive record” that included several convictions of terrorizing, burglary, theft and probation violations.
“This is a crime of violence,” Robbins said before he asked for $50,000 cash bail and a curfew.
Defense attorney Christopher Berryment said he would accept the bail and conditions as long as it can be reviewed once Carey has a chance to meet with Hafford. He also asked to have a Maine pretrial agreement as an alternative bail.
Berryment said he was told that Hafford has a substance abuse problem and suggested he could go into a residential treatment center from the jail.
According to Jay police Detective Michael Mejia’s probable cause affidavit filed with the court, the homeowner was awoken late June 28 by two subjects in his bedroom. The suspects had broken into the residence through the locked front door where “pry-marks” were located. Both suspects were wearing full-face respirators over their faces, the affidavit states. According to a time line, the suspects entered the house at 11:28 p.m. and left at about 11:55. The victim was able to free himself and called 911 at 11:59 p.m.
Police said there were footwear imprints in the dirt where the road meets the front lawn and where a left-handed white glove had been dropped.
The victim’s nephew installed a game camera at the residence on June 1 after it was discovered that the house had been entered when the victim was not home and a large part of his coin collection had been placed into a backpack near the front door. The victim put the coins back and chose not to report it to police.
Photos on the camera captured images of the suspects, including one of them taking off a white glove from his left hand while he made a call on a cellphone, according to the affidavit.
The public called in anonymous tips after a portion of the video was submitted to the media to help identify the intruders. Callers gave names of possible suspects, including Hafford’s.
Mejia wrote in his affidavit that a sergeant from the Androscoggin County Sheriff’s Department contacted him on June 30 to advise that someone operating a boat at the Riverbend Campground on Route 106 in Leeds had located a white mesh bag full of collector coin items. They removed the bag from the water and it was turned over to the campground staff who then reported it to police.
Even though the contents of the bag had been heavily damaged, the sergeant was able to locate the name of the victim on a paper inside one of the coin boxes, Mejia wrote. The white mesh bag matched one of the bags the suspects had been seen carrying on the camera images, he wrote.
Hafford, who was found at a Livermore Falls residence after police were told he wasn’t there, denied being involved in the home invasion.
On July 9, the victim reported to police that the suspects who robbed him had used his debit card at two different ATMs after they left his home and before he had a chance to deactivate the card. There were six transactions that the victim could not identify. The amount stolen from his bank account was $516, Mejia wrote. Police also have a video of Hafford cashing in 530 coins at an Auburn Coinstar, wearing the same clothing seen on the victim’s video, Mejia wrote. Hafford denied the coins were from the robbery.
dperry@sunmediagroup.net
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