Terry Elwell, 35, of Maquoit Road, pleaded guilty in December to felony burglary and theft, as well as the lesser charges of refusing to submit to arrest and unlawful possession of scheduled drugs, according to records obtained from Cumberland County Superior Court.
A Cumberland County grand jury indicted Elwell in October 2011 for the crimes, as well as for a fifth count of Class C theft, for the Sept. 15 incident.
Brunswick police officers responded that day to a report of a suspicious person possibly looking in windows at the mobile home park off Maquoit Road. Officers Jason McCarthy and Julia Gillespie spotted Elwell behind one of the homes, Detective Sgt. Martin Rinaldi said at the time.
McCarthy arrested
Elwell after chasing him into nearby blueberry barrens.
Police found “ a large quantity of jewelry on his person,” Rinaldi said at the time, adding Wednesday that DNA evidence collected from inside the home “put (Elwell) in there.”
Elwell pleaded not guilty at an October 2011 arraignment in Cumberland County Superior Court, but on Dec. 1, he pleaded guilty to felony burglary and theft, as well as to refusal to submit to arrest or detention and unlawful possession of scheduled drugs, both misdemeanors.
The district attorney’s office dropped the lesser theft charge, according to court documents.
Justice Joyce A. Wheeler sentenced Elwell to five years in the Department of Corrections with all but 15 months suspended, followed by three years of probation, for the felony counts. An additional sentence of six months in Cumberland County Jail for the misdemeanor convictions will be served concurrently with the initial sen- tence.
Elwell “has a history of residential burglaries, and this time we just happened to be close,” Rinaldi said Wednesday. “The officers who arrived positioned themselves and made it difficult for him to get away. He has a history of running, but McCarthy caught him.”
Among his previous convictions, Elwell was convicted in March 2011 of refusing to stop for an officer and refusing to submit to arrest after a September 2010 incident on Spring Street. A Brunswick detective also charged Elwell with possession or transfer of burglar’s tools and carrying a concealed weapon after a witness told police they spotted him casing a nearby home, but those charges were dismissed.
In May 2011, Elwell was convicted of making a false public alarm or report and domestic violence assault and sentenced to seven months in jail for a Nov. 22, 2010, incident, according to The Times Record archives.
Elwell is currently incarcerated at the Maine Correctional Center in South Windham, according to the Maine Department of Corrections online Prisoner/Probationer database. He is first eligible for release in December.
bbrogan@timesrecord.com
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