SKOWHEGAN — Two men were sentenced recently for separate crimes committed this summer in Hartland.

Michael Hurd, 30, of Canaan, will spend two years in prison for assaulting and robbing a woman walking to work; and Henry B. Murdoch IV, 46, of Dexter, will spend six months in jail for leading police on a high-speed chase.

* Hurd pleaded guilty on Nov. 17 in Somerset County Superior Court to robbery, violating conditions of release, criminal restraint and two counts of domestic-violence assault. Charges of aggravated assault and criminal threatening with a dangerous weapon were dismissed.

According to a police affidavit, Hurd grabbed a woman — whom he allegedly had assaulted two weeks earlier and was prohibited from contacting — as she was walking to work on July 20, and he demanded the keys to her car.

He then pushed her into the bushes off Commercial Street and started choking her. She told police she was choked to the point that she felt as though her eyes were going to pop.

She fought Hurd, the affidavit states, but he dragged her and continued to choke, slap, punch and bite her. He took all the money she had and her cellphone. Though Hurd later was charged with threatening the woman with a knife, that charge was dropped because he pleaded guilty to the other charges, according to court paperwork.

A witness who saw Hurd pulling the screaming woman by her arm up the road called police around 2:30 p.m.

Hurd was sentenced to five years in prison, with all but two years suspended, and two years of probation. The court also ordered him to complete a batterer’s intervention program successfully.

* Murdoch will spend six months in jail and pay $1,000 restitution for leading police on a high-speed chase June 3 in Hartland.

Murdoch pleaded guilty Nov. 17 to criminal speeding and eluding an officer. Charges of passing a roadblock and driving to endanger were dismissed, according to court papers.

The high-speed chase involved at least 40 police officers who pursued Murdoch’s pickup truck as it traveled more than 100 mph, according to published reports. The truck eventually hit a pothole in St. Albans, and Murdoch ran into the woods, spurring a massive police manhunt.

He was discovered later at MaineGeneral Medical Center’s Thayer Campus in Waterville.

Before the chase, Murdoch had been indicted on a charge of arson for allegedly burning down his own home last winter. He had been free on bail, but police began searching for him after his bail was revoked.