A fourth person is facing charges in a Manchester home invasion during which a resident was awakened in the middle of the night by a masked man who threatened her with a knife.

Benjamin Daniel Pilsbury, 28, was arrested recently and charged with criminal conspiracy to commit robbery, criminal conspiracy to commit burglary and theft by unauthorized taking in connection with the Sept. 5 incident at the home of Dwight Wheeler on Prescott Road, Manchester.

Pilsbury is being held at the Kennebec County jail without bail on a charge of violating conditions of release and on $110,000 cash bail on a number of other charges.

Pilsbury is the fourth person to be charged in connection with the home invasion.

Mary Catherine A. Tatlock, 30, faces charges of robbery, conspiracy to commit robbery and burglary.

Ricky Allen Lane, 24, and Michael J. Ruth II, 26, had previously been arrested and charged with burglary, robbery, terrorizing, criminal mischief and theft .

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Tatlock, Lane and Ruth were indicted last month by a Kennebec County Superior Court grand jury.

The trio told police that Pilsbury drove the night Lane and Ruth broke into Wheeler’s home after Tatlock told them she had seen a big jewelry box inside, according to an affidavit filed in superior court by Kennebec County Sheriff Deputy Jesse Duda.

Wheeler’s live-in companion, Charlotte Pinkham, 67, told police she awoke around 2 a.m. to see a man standing over her holding a 4-inch knife and demanding money.

Lane and Ruth both confessed to the home invasion, Duda said, though each man claims the other carried the knife.

Duda’s affidavit says a plot was hatched to get money for more cocaine.


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