Pittsfield man sentenced to 20 years for sexual assault charges involving children

SKOWHEGAN — A Pittsfield man was sentenced Monday to 20 years in prison followed by 10 years of supervised release after pleading guilty last year to several sexual assault charges involving children.

Charles Frost, 41, was initially arrested in January last year with his longtime romantic partner, Davina Petchonka, 39. Frost was charged with gross sexual assault, unlawful sexual contact and incest. His sentence was handed out by Chief Justice Robert Mullen at the Somerset County Superior Court.

One of the couple’s victims was younger than 18 and another was younger than 14, according to Savannah Shurak, a victim advocate with the Somerset and Kennebec District Attorney’s Office.

“This is actually a very unique case for our county,” Shurak said Tuesday. “Mr. Frost and Davina Petchonka were in a relationship at the time.”

The Morning Sentinel is not reporting some elements of the case in order to protect the identities of the victims.

A criminal complaint filed last year alleged that Frost “did engage in a sexual act with a minor,” according to Somerset and Kennebec County District Attorney Maeghan Maloney.

As a result of the conviction, Frost is not allowed to contact the victims or anyone under the age of 18. He also will have to register as a sex offender and is barred from possessing firearms, alcohol, cannabis and other drugs.

Frost had been held at the Somerset County Jail since his initial arrest in 2023, and was still being held there as of Tuesday afternoon. Shurak said he will be moved to the Maine State Prison, although it is unclear exactly when.

Stemming from the same case, Petchonka was convicted in September 2023 on a charge of incest and acquitted on a charge of gross sexual assault by a Somerset County jury. In Maine, incest is a misdemeanor that can carry a sentence of up to one year in jail, while gross sexual assault is a felony that can carry a sentence of up to 10 years.

Mullen also presided over that case and sentenced Petchonka to time served, saying at the time that the 322 days she had been incarcerated during the trial was close enough to the maximum punishment he could inflict upon her.

“I truly believe she understands what happened was wrong,” Mullen said in September. “I feel badly for the complainant but the simple fact is the worst I could do — the harshest sentence — is 364 days. I don’t think the maximum sentence is going to do a whole lot here apart from take up space in the jail.”

Petchonka and Frost are the parents of a child who was shot in the back on Feb. 28, 2020, by a drive-by shooter who mistakenly believed someone else lived in their apartment on Summer Street in Waterville. The child, 7 at the time, was in her bedroom when the bullet went through the wall of her bedroom and into her back. She was taken to Maine Medical Center in Portland and returned home to Waterville nearly a week later.

Two men were charged and convicted in connection with the shooting.