Rothesay man sent to prison
Published Wednesday August 19th, 2009
Court Melles robbed convenience store, stole $40,000 worth of items from home
HAMPTON - Stephen Anthony Melles was sentenced Tuesday to five years in a federal penitentiary for robbing a French Village convenience store with a knife and stealing more than $40,000 worth of belongings from a Quispamsis home.
Melles, 31, of Rothesay smiled throughout his sentencing in Hampton provincial court. He pleaded guilty to armed robbery and break, enter and theft.
Crown prosecutor Kelly Winchester told the court a 25-year-old woman and an 18-year-old woman were preparing to close a French Village convenience store at 10:45 p.m. on May 21 when Melles entered the store. Winchester said Melles was dressed in a black hooded sweatshirt, sunglasses and had something covering his mouth.
He was holding a silver jagged knife and, in a deep shaking voice, said, "Give me the money."
Winchester said Melles was shaking the knife when the two women took all of the money out of the cash - about $100 - and placed it in a plastic bag he had brought with him. He then demanded cigarettes. Winchester said the employees asked him what kind he would like, and eight packs of Players Light were placed in the bag.
The prosecutor said the crime appeared premeditated because Melles had his face covered, was dressed in dark clothing, had a knife and he robbed the store just before it closed.
Winchester said the crime affected the owners of the store, the community as a whole and the young employees who wrote victim impact statements that said they are feeling anxiety as a result of the incident.
The Crown prosecutor said the next day - May 22 - Melles broke into a Hampton Road home in Quispamsis.
The home owners came back on May 24 after a vacation in Nova Scotia and immediately noticed their Jeep was not in the driveway.
She said the home owners pushed open their front door to find their house in a "total mess." Among the items missing were several televisions, jewelry, family mementos, food and the keys to their Jeep.
The stolen items were worth about $40,000. Some items, including the Jeep, were recovered and returned to the owners but there is still about $18,000 worth of items, including irreplaceable family mementos, missing.
Winchester said the Rothesay Regional Police Force identified some of the missing items at a pawn shop and the owner's records indicated Melles exchanged the goods for cash.
The pawn shop owner also showed the police a GPS system that Melles had left behind.
When police turned it on, it immediately flashed Melles' home address as the last place it had been.
Police executed a search warrant at the home and arrested Melles.
He confessed to both crimes and said he did it to feed his addiction to Dilaudid.
Winchester said the home owners, who had their house for sale at the time, feel as if they are prisoners in their own home. She asked that Melles be sentenced to six to eight years in prison.
Defence lawyer John King said Melles has no criminal record and is a gentlemanly person.
"People usually build up to this, but he broke in hard, he broke in at the top of the ladder and he put himself in the big leagues," King said.
Judge Henrik Tonning sentenced Melles to three years in prison for the armed robbery and two years for the break and enter.
The judge also banned him from owning firearms for 10 years and ordered him to give a DNA sample.
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