AUBURN — A Lewiston teen charged with robbing a Big Apple store at knifepoint last summer pleaded guilty Tuesday to misdemeanors and was sentenced to time-served.

Ali Mohamed, 19, of 135 Bartlett St. had been charged with Class A robbery, punishable by up to 30 years in prison. A prosecutor dismissed that charge and, in an agreement with them, Mohamed pleaded instead to new charges: criminal threatening, a Class D misdemeanor, punishable by up to 364 days in jail; and theft by unauthorized taking, a Class E misdemeanor, punishable by up to six months in jail.

On the first charge, Mohamed was sentenced to 300 days with all but 74 days of that time suspended. He had spent that much time at Androscoggin County Jail awaiting trial. For that crime, he is to serve a year on probation.

On the theft charge, he was sentenced to five months in jail, consecutive to the first sentence, but all of that time was suspended. He is to serve an additional year on probation.

He was ordered to pay $155 in restitution to The Big Apple store in New Auburn, which is a Citgo gas station.

During his two years of probation, he must complete school or be working. Mohamed must not enter The Big Apple or have any contact with the clerk who was the victim of his criminal threatening.

He must submit to psychological evaluation and counseling to his probation officer’s satisfaction.

When police arrested him on a warrant, after initially denying he was involved he eventually admitted committing the robbery July 9.

During questioning at Androscoggin County Jail, he told police they were right to believe he had robbed the store, saying, “I did it,” according to a police affidavit.

He said he hadn’t intended to hurt anyone.

He said he “scoped the place out” several times before robbing it. He had asked the clerk to hold a blue-colored drink for him. He said he had used a knife with a red-orange handle during the robbery.

He said he ditched the knife, the drink and a black hoodie before he was stopped by police on a footbridge to Lewiston. He told police he had planned to leave the state, was working construction for “straight cash,” needed food and was homeless.

He said he had used marijuana around the time of the robbery. He handed over the stolen cash to someone else after the robbery, he said. He claimed the total cash stolen was $155. He told police his mother could repay the stolen money “to make it right.”

One of the police officers, including Lewiston police, who responded to the store shortly after the robbery encountered Mohamed walking by the footbridge that connects Bonney Park in Auburn to Simard-Payne Memorial Park in Lewiston. The officer searched Mohamed, who was wearing a different shirt from the one described as having been worn by the robber. No knife was found on him.

Mohamed told the officer he’d seen a male wearing a black hoodie running down the Riverwalk toward Court Street. Although a warrant had been issued for Mohamed’s arrest, that information hadn’t been received by that officer, so he let Mohamed go. He was arrested the next day.

cwilliams@sunjournal.com

Ali Mohamed (Submitted photo)