LEWISTON — A judge Wednesday set bail at $100,000 cash for an Auburn man who, police said, stole a gun two days earlier that led to a seven-hour police standoff in the city’s downtown area after he pointed the loaded gun at his girlfriend’s head.
Scott Andrew Estes, 37, of 902 Lodge Court in Auburn admitted Wednesday in 8th District Court to violating terms of his probation on a 2015 conviction for trafficking in prison contraband. He will be held without bail to serve the remainder of that two-year sentence.
Scott Estes appeared in the Lewiston District Court on Wednesday.
His probation officer claimed Estes had violated his probation when he broke the nose of his ex-wife in September, failed to report to probation and to give his address change. He also failed to contact probation that he had contact with police.
Judge Maria Woodman on Wednesday set bail at $100,000 cash on new charges stemming from Monday’s incident during which Estes barricaded himself in an apartment at 287 Bates St. after police spotted him on the street.
The Maine State Police Tactical Team was deployed at the site, but Estes eventually turned himself in without injury or shots fired. The apartment building was evacuated, the surrounding area secured and four city schools — Lewiston High School, Lewiston Regional Technical Center, Martel Elementary School and The Green Ladle culinary school — were locked down.
Police had followed up a tip that Estes had stolen a gun and was in the area of the Bates Street apartment. The Smith & Wesson .380-caliber pistol was traced back to its owner at a single-family home on Laase Avenue.
On Wednesday, Judge Woodman said Estes faced three felony charges in the standoff. He is charged with theft by unauthorized taking (a firearm), punishable by up to 10 years in prison. He also faces charges of criminal threatening with a dangerous weapon and possession of a firearm by a prohibited person, each punishable by up to five years in prison.
The judge included in Estes’ bail conditions that he be barred from having dangerous weapons, including firearms. He must have no contact with Katherine Hutchins, 38, who had reported to police Monday morning that Estes, her boyfriend, had stolen a gun from a home she had been cleaning. She said she had driven Estes to the Bates Street apartment to visit friends there, according to an affidavit written by Detective Crystal Lachance.
Hutchins told police that Estes had pointed the gun, loaded with a clip, at the side of her head as she drove to Bates Street from the Laase Avenue home, where she had been cleaning.
She described Estes as “having a blank stare, like ‘Jeffrey Daumer.'” She tried to downplay her fright and told Estes he could sell the weapon, according to the affidavit.
As she drove, Hutchins texted the owner of the home she’d been cleaning to ask whether she was missing a gun. The owner responded that she was, indeed, missing a gun that had been hidden in a basket above her refrigerator.
Judge Woodman on Wednesday prohibited Estes from having any contact with the gun’s owner as well as a 32-year-old woman who had been with her 8-year-old child in the Bates Street apartment where Estes had holed up. Shortly after 1 p.m., she and her child escaped down a rear stairwell and left the building, according to the affidavit.
During their search of the Bates Street apartment building, police were told that Estes had texted someone to say he was in the woods by Bartlett Street and headed for the Lewiston High School area. As a precaution, police had ordered Lewiston High School and Martel School locked down. That order was lifted around 1:30 p.m. after police determined Estes was alone in the Bates Street apartment.
Estes surrendered to police shortly after 6 p.m.
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