AUBURN — A Readfield man was sentenced Monday to eight years in prison for violating his probation stemming from an ice-chopper assault on a Lewiston man in 2007.

Luke Blair, 28, was sentenced in Androscoggin County Superior Court on Monday by Justice Thomas E. Delahanty II.

Two days before he turned 18, Blair was part of a group of teens who robbed Gary St. Hilaire in an alley near Bartlett and Walnut streets in November 2007. An ice chopper was found with St. Hilaire’s blood on the blade, its wooden handle splintered from the force of the blow. St. Hilaire suffered a nine-inch skull fracture, language, memory and right-side body impairments, a prosecutor said previously.

Blair was initially bound over for trial as an adult on a charge of attempted murder. The charge was dismissed in an agreement to plead guilty to elevated aggravated assault that capped his prison sentence at 12 years. He served nearly 10 years before being released on probation in 2017.

He was then charged with domestic violence assault and domestic violence criminal threatening against his then-girlfriend in Dec. 28, 2017, in Readfield.

On Jan. 5, Lewiston police, who had been searching for Blair, captured him after he took off on foot on Ash Street, barricaded himself in an apartment and attempted to jump out a window.

Blair admitted to violating his probation on charges of aggravated criminal trespass, criminal mischief, refusing to submit to arrest and assault on an officer stemming from that incident. He was sentenced to an additional three years in prison and four years probation.

On Aug. 6, Delahanty found Blair committed domestic violence assault and domestic violence criminal threatening against his then-girlfriend in 2017, confirming that he violated his probation sentence from the 2007 attack.

He was sentenced to serve eight more years of that sentence.


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