Augusta Man Sentenced for Robbing Businesses at Knifepoint

BANGOR, Maine: An Augusta resident was sentenced today in U.S. District Court in Bangor for a series of robberies in 2019, Acting U.S. Attorney Donald E. Clark announced.

U.S. District Judge John A. Woodcock, Jr. sentenced Barry Grant, Jr., 39, to 57 months in prison followed by three years of supervised release. Grant was also ordered to pay $1,878 in restitution. He pleaded guilty on October 28, 2019.

According to court records, on February 25, 2019, and on July 17, 20 and 23, 2019, Grant robbed four different Augusta businesses at knifepoint. On each occasion he fled the scene with cash from the register. Grant was arrested by Augusta Police while fleeing the July 23, 2019 robbery.

“Knifepoint robberies are serious crimes that have ripple effects throughout the community, affecting clerks who are physically threatened, store owners who lose revenue, and near-by residents who feel less safe in their neighborhoods,” said Acting U.S. Attorney Clark. “The Project Safe Neighborhoods partnership between local, state and federal law enforcement agencies is effective and the investigation of this case by the Augusta Police Department and the FBI is an excellent example of that effective partnership.”

The Augusta Police Department and the FBI investigated the case as part of the Department of Justice’s Project Safe Neighborhoods (PSN) initiative.

PSN is the centerpiece of the Department of Justice’s violent crime reduction efforts. PSN is an evidence-based program proven to be effective at reducing violent crime. Through PSN, a broad spectrum of stakeholders work together to identify the most pressing violent crime problems in the community and develop comprehensive solutions to address them. As part of this strategy, PSN focuses enforcement efforts on the most violent offenders and partners with locally based prevention and reentry programs for lasting reductions in crime.