AUGUSTA — For robbing the Manchester Rite Aid pharmacy last Sept. 6 and for several other offenses, a former Manchester woman was sentenced Wednesday to an initial 12 months behind bars, with an additional 33 months suspended, and placed on three years of probation. She also was fined $400.

Brooke L. Frost, 24, now of Unity, had no criminal record before that offense.

Frost’s sentence was crafted so she will serve her time in the Kennebec County jail rather than the state prison because she already has served almost eight months of incarceration.

Conditions of her probation prohibit her from contact with Devon M. Gray, her codefendant, who is serving a prison term for the same robbery, and they prohibit her from being at the Manchester pharmacy.

Frost had pleaded guilty in January to robbery, stealing drugs and unlawful possession of scheduled drugs, all of which occurred Sept. 6, 2014, at the Manchester pharmacy. At that same hearing, Frost pleaded guilty to theft by unauthorized taking or transfer and violating condition of release, which occurred Dec. 18, 2014.

She had been free on $10,000 bail on the robbery charges when she was arrested by Augusta police at Kohl’s and charged with shoplifting a necklace. Augusta police Officer Benjamin Murtiff said in an affidavit filed in that case that Frost had indicated the jewelry was to be a Christmas present for her mother.

During the robbery, Frost wore a hat and baggy clothing as she handed the pharmacist a note saying, “Give me Percocet I have a gun.” She was handed two bottles with oxycodone medication and a tracker bottle.

Initially she and Gray, who have three children together, said drug dealers forced them to commit the robbery.

A sentencing memo by Frost’s attorney, Kevin Sullivan, says that 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.”

Store employees recognized Frost as a regular customer.

Sullivan’s memo also notes that Gray dropped out of school at 14 and had his first son at 17.

After the third son, Gray “had a vasectomy that went very wrong,” and he became addicted to pain medication and missed work.

The family had no electricity and no gas money, and Frost began doing drugs, Sullivan said.

Gray testified at Frost’s sentencing hearing Wednesday that he had put her up to doing the robbery. Gray also cased the store before Frost went in to rob it, according to a court affidavit by Detective Michael Bickford, of the Kennebec Sheriff’s Office.

Gray, 26, of Monmouth, was sentenced in April and 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.

Betty Adams — 621-5631

badams@centralmaine.com

Twitter: @betadams

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