AUBURN — An Auburn woman who lost $250 from her husband’s credit card while gambling at Oxford Casino tried to recoup her losses by stealing a woman’s pocketbook at a local store.

Doreen Poulin, 55, of 33 Valley Road pleaded guilty to a charge of robbery and was sentenced to two years in prison, with all of that time suspended except for nine days she already spent in jail.

Poulin appeared in Androscoggin County Superior Court on Friday, where a prosecutor described Poulin’s encounter with a shopper at Big Lots in March.

Police were called to the store in the late afternoon after a 67-year-old woman yelled that she had been robbed.

According to a police report, the victim said Poulin had grabbed her bicep and tried to pepper spray her face while grabbing the woman’s pocketbook from her shopping cart. After the two women struggled, Poulin fled with the victim’s pocketbook, according to a sworn affidavit by police officer Mark Lemos.

He wrote that a store employee ran after Poulin and touched her back when Poulin turned and sprayed her in the eyes with pepper spray. That employee was treated at a Lewiston hospital emergency room.

A shopper had followed Poulin to a car dealership across the street where Poulin was hiding in bushes behind a snowbank, according to the report. Poulin dropped a can of pepper spray when she raised her hands at the order of police.

Police said Poulin had jumped into a car outside Big Lots as she fled the store and told the teenage driver that someone had been in an accident and that she needed help. But she jumped out of the car at the end of the store’s driveway and ran across the street to the dealership, police said.

Poulin also pleaded guilty to misdemeanor criminal use of disabling chemicals, for which she was sentenced to the nine days she had already spent behind bars.

She will be on probation for three years and, during that time, won’t be allowed to carry pepper spray nor have any contact with the robbery and pepper spray victims. She won’t be allowed to gamble and is prohibited from entering a casino or bingo hall. She must attend Gamblers Anonymous at least twice a month, continue treatment with therapists, take all required medications as prescribed and submit to random tests to ensure that she is complying with prescribed doses. She also is required to perform five hours of community service per week.

Poulin’s trial was scheduled to start Monday; a jury had already been picked.

Lewiston attorney James Howaniec told Androscoggin County Superior Court Justice MaryGay Kennedy that he intended to show his client had suffered from abnormal condition of mind at the time of the crime. He had planned to call two psychiatric experts to testify about Poulin’s long history of bipolar and post-traumatic stress disorders, severe depression and anxiety, and compulsive gambling disorder. She also has struggled with suicidal thoughts, Howaniec wrote in court papers.

The panic she experienced after having lost the cash she withdrew from her husband’s credit card triggered a manic episode, Howaniec said.

The woman whose pocketbook Poulin had grabbed appeared in court on Friday, urging Poulin to get help and never put another victim through what she experienced, including continued therapy for crippling pain caused by the physical struggle. The victim said she already had enough stress in her life caring for her husband who suffers from Parkinson’s disease.

Two other charges, including a felony drug charge, were dismissed by prosecutors.

cwilliams@sunjournal.com