AUGUSTA — A Winthrop man will serve 2½ years in prison after pleading guilty Tuesday in Kennebec County Superior Court to charges of robbery, eluding an officer, passing a roadblock and theft by unauthorized taking stemming from two incidents on March 30.

Jed Ian St. Hilaire, 34, pushed an 86-year-woman as she was getting into her car in the Walmart parking lot and took her purse, then bought cocaine with the $250 cash he found inside it, police said.

Hours later, about 5 p.m., he stole another woman’s purse in the Hannaford Bros. supermarket on Cony Street.

Augusta police arrested St. Hilaire after a high-speed chase through northwest Augusta and along Interstate 95, where he eventually abandoned his vehicle and ran into the woods before being captured.

On Tuesday, he was sentenced to eight years in prison, with all but 30 months suspended, and four years of probation.

Conditions of probation ban him from being at the Market Place at Augusta, where Walmart is located, and from any Hannaford Bros. supermarket in Maine.

He was ordered to pay restitution of $320.


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