AUGUSTA — DNA from a discarded pair of plaid undershorts helped police identify Jesse Ray Hanson as a suspect in an April 11 theft at the Cumberland Farms convenience store on Mount Vernon Avenue.

Hanson, 26, was arrested Tuesday and charged with theft for allegedly taking money from the convenience store that day.

He had an initial court hearing Wednesday on that charge, as well as charges of unlawful trafficking in heroin and unlawful possession of heroin, stemming from an incident April 22 in Augusta.

A judge set Hanson’s bail at $3,500 cash plus a Maine Pretrial Services contract. Conditions of bail prohibit him from use and possession of alcohol and illegal drugs and from returning to Cumberland Farms.

An affidavit by Augusta police Detective Chris Blodgett filed in the Capital Judicial Center says the plaid underwear was observed by a witness driving into the store’s parking lot just as the robber, clad in jeans with a large rip in the buttocks, was leaving the store. The witness also told police the robber had been wearing surgical-type gloves.

The clerk told police that the early-morning intruder had covered his face with a bandanna and ordered her to take money from the staff and the cash register drawer.

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Police tracking the suspect lost the trail on the north side of nearby Bond Street, but found footprints in the snow leading toward Morton Place as well as a pair of black-framed sunglasses resting on the snow near the footprints and theorized they were glasses worn during the theft.

Shortly afterward, they found other clothing resembling that worn by the thief: “latex gloves, jeans, boots, a red scarf, a hat, and a pair of plaid boxer shorts,” Blodgett’s affidavit says.

Tests at the Maine State Crime Lab matched DNA from the underwear to Hanson, and Blodgett said the items were discarded along a path that led between the store and Hanson’s Crosby Street Place residence.

Hanson was not at his residence April 28 when police executed a search warrant there. However, they found hypodermic needles as well as prescription medication for Hanson and a hypodermic containing what police believed was heroin, according to a separate affidavit by Kennebec Sheriff’s Office Detective Michael Bickford. Bickford wrote that he monitored an April 22 controlled buy of heroin that took place after Hanson had offered to sell heroin to a confidential informant.

Other informants told police Hanson was selling heroin and oxycodone from his apartment, and that he was obtaining it from a man named Justin who was bringing it to Maine from New York.

Hanson was arrested Tuesday in Augusta and held in lieu of $25,000 bail in connection with the Cumberland Farms theft.

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Hanson’s attire has caused him other problems in the past. He was arrested in November 2012 in Oakland after he left one of his shoes inside a pickup truck he was accused of burglarizing. Hanson lost the shoe in a fight with the vehicle’s owner, who returned to find Hanson inside the truck.

Police found Hanson about an hour later, wearing a single shoe, as he walked out of a nearby house, bleeding from the confrontation.

Court records show Hanson was convicted in April 2013 of a theft charge in connection with that incident and sentenced to 28 days in jail.

He had been convicted in September 2010 of burglarizing motor vehicles in Augusta and Farmingdale.

Betty Adams — 621-5631

badams@centralmaine.com

Twitter: @betadams


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