AUGUSTA — An Augusta man who rode his bicycle up to a man in the Walgreens parking lot, demanded money and threatened to stab him, pleaded guilty to criminal threatening in court Tuesday.
Joshua Veilleux
Joshua A. Veilleux, 27, initially was charged with robbery after the Jan. 20 incident, but state prosecutors agreed to dismiss that and instead charge him with criminal threatening in exchange for his guilty plea Tuesday.
He was sentenced to 180 days in jail, with all but 48 days suspended, time he already has served since his arrest. He also will be on probation for a year, with conditions including having no contact with the victim in the case.
The victim, an Augusta man, had gone to the store to pick up soda before a football game that day and was waiting for a friend in the Walgreens parking lot in the evening. That’s when Veilleux approached him on a bicycle, got off his bike, threatened to stab him and demanded money, according to an affidavit filed by Augusta police Officer Brett Lowell. When the victim’s friend joined him and asked what was going on, Veilleux rode away on his bicycle, without having gotten any money.
Police received a report of an attempted robbery at the Walgreens and went to the scene. Following bike tire tracks they found in the snow to a Water Street apartment building where Veilleux lived, police found him wearing clothes matching the description of the suspect, including a bandanna around his neck. The victim said a bandana covered the suspect’s face.
In the affidavit, Lowell wrote that Veilleux said he thought the other man was going to try to steal his bicycle, but when Lowell interviewed the victim’s friend, the friend said he had heard Veilleux threaten his friend and demand money.
The original class B robbery charge was a felony-level crime, punishable by up to 10 years in prison.
The class D criminal threatening charge Veilleux pleaded guilty to Tuesday at the Capital Judicial Center is a misdemeanor, punishable by up to a year in jail.
Veilleux was indicted in March.
Keith Edwards — 621-5647
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