AUGUSTA —A man who went into the Manchester Rite Aid Pharmacy to case it for security guards before his fiancee robbed it last September was sentenced Tuesday after pleading guilty to robbery.

Devon M. Gray, 26, of Monmouth, was ordered to serve an initial 20 months behind bars and the remainder of his eight-year sentence was suspended. He also was ordered to serve three years of probation during which conditions prohibit him from returning to Rite Aid property and from possessing drug paraphernalia and hypodermic needles.

His fiancee, Brooke Frost, 24, of Manchester, pleaded guilty in January to the robbery and is awaiting sentencing.

Using surveillance video and information from pharmacy employees, police identified Brooke Frost as the suspect who handed the pharmacist a note demanding, “Give me Percocet I have a gun.”

She and Gray were interviewed in their home and admitted committing the robbery, telling authorities that drug dealers forced them to rob the pharmacy. However, when Frost pleaded guilty, the prosecutor, Assistant District Attorney Joelle Pratt, said investigators found nothing to indicate that was true.

Gray said his role was to go into the store before Frost and to look for security guards. In exchange for Gray’s plea to robbery, charges of stealing drugs and unlawful possession of oxycodone were dismissed as was a charge of violating conditions of release for having contact with Frost on Feb. 24, 2015, in Manchester.

The couple have three children.

“It’s a sad situation when both parents are in custody for a crime of that nature,” said Brad Grant, one of Gray’s defense attorneys. At the Kennebec County Superior Court hearing on Tuesday at the Capital Judicial Center, Gray was represented by attorney Kyle Myska.

A sentencing memo filed in court on Monday by Frost’s attorney, Kevin Sullivan, said Frost had no prior criminal history. Sullivan said Frost dropped out of school at 14 and had her first son with Gray when she was 17. After their third son, Gray “had a vasectomy that went very wrong,” Sullivan wrote. As a result, Gray became addicted to pain medication and eventually lost his job and could not support the family. The electricity was cut off and the family had no gas money, Sullivan wrote. In the meantime, he said Frost too began doing drugs.

On Sept. 6, 2014, “Devon convinced Brooke to put on men’s clothing and rob the Rite Aid Pharmacy in Manchester. It is clear Brooke had some issues just by looking at the disguise as it was not even remotely hiding her identity,” Sullivan said.

Later, while out on $10,000 bail, Frost was arrested Dec. 18, 2014, on charges of theft and violating conditions of release for attempting to steal merchandise from Kohl’s. She pleaded guilty to those charges as well in January.

Sullivan suggested Frost be sentenced to serve nine months in jail, with the remainder of a five-year sentence suspended, and a period of probation.

Frost’s sentencing hearing, which was originally set for Tuesday afternoon, is to be rescheduled in late April, according to a note in the court file.

Betty Adams — 621-5631

badams@centralmaine.com

Twitter: @betadams

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