5 INDICTED IN THEFT, BEATING

5 INDICTED IN THEFT, BEATING
BY AMY CALDER
Staff Writer Morning Sentinel

Two Canaan women are among five people expected to appear in court next month in connection with the alleged May 24 robbery and beating of a Benton man they met at a Waterville bar.

Michelle Hutchins, 30, and Shannan N. Santerre, 25, both of Canaan; Richard Horton, 35, of Dorchester, Mass.; David James, 23, of Mattapan, Mass.; and Kendra M. Totten, 21, of Augusta, are scheduled to be arraigned at 8:30 a.m. July 14 in Kennebec County Superior Court in Augusta.

During an arraignment, a defendant or his or her attorney appears in court and enters a plea.

The five were indicted Wednesday by a Kennebec County grand jury. All were indicted on the Class A felony charge of robbery, involving Christopher Rosenbloom, 58, of Benton.

An indictment is not a finding of guilt, but is a determination that enough evidence exists in a case to bring it to trial.

Hutchins, Santerre, Horton, James and Totten met Rosenbloom at the Bob-In restaurant and lounge on Temple Street in Waterville and drove him to Benton, where they robbed and beat him and stole $1,800 that was in his wallet, according to an affidavit signed by state police Trooper Rick Moody, who investigated the case.

Rosenbloom called police May 24 from his cell phone and said he had been beaten and robbed by people he met at the Bob-In and was lying in the ditch in which he was beaten, the affidavit says. He said he was bleeding and did not know where he was.

The people he met at the Bob-In had offered him a ride home to Benton and while they were in the vehicle, two men started punching him, stopped the vehicle, pulled him out and continued to beat him. He lost ultimately lost consciousness, the affidavit says.

"It's a disturbing sort of pre-meditated robbery," District Attorney Evert Fowle said Friday of the case.

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