Strout to be sentenced May 23

    ORIENT — An Orient man will be back before a judge later this month for sentencing in his role in a triple murder in Amity on June 22, 2010.
    Robert Strout, 64, will appear in Aroostook County Superior Court in Houlton at 1 p.m. on May 23.
    Strout will be sentenced before Thayne Ormsby, 22, an Ellsworth native who was convicted of three counts of murder on April 13 in the stabbing deaths of Jeffrey Ryan, 55, Ryan’s son Jesse, 10, and Ryan family friend Jason Dehahn, 30, all of Amity.
    Strout’s first arrest came in September 2010 when he was charged with hindering apprehension and arson for his part in helping Ormsby conceal evidence in the murder investigation.
    Ormsby lived close to the crime scene at the home of Strout and his wife, Joy Strout.
    Strout told police in July 2010 that Ormsby came to his home after the slayings and threatened to kill his family if he did not take him to Weston to burn his bloody clothes and to set Ryan’s truck ablaze. Strout also drove Ormsby to a bog where he disposed of the murder weapon.
    Two days later, Strout drove Ormsby to his son’s home in New Hampshire, where Ormsby was arrested.
    Ormsby has denied that he threatened Strout.
    Strout initially pleaded not guilty to charges connected to the slayings and was out on bail when he was arrested by officers with the Maine Drug Enforcement Agency in August 2011 and charged with aggravated furnishing of scheduled drugs and violation of bail.
    Strout was offered a plea deal by the state in October 2011 in exchange for his testimony against Ormsby, but he ultimately was not called to the stand.
    Under the agreement, Strout will serve a minimum of two years and faces up to four years in prison on all of the charges.
    He already has pleaded guilty to the four charges but his sentencing was deferred until after Ormsby’s trial.
    According to published reports, Strout has a prior criminal history. He spent three months in jail on a felony charge of taking a motor vehicle without consent of the owner in 1966 and paid fines for interfering with an officer and disorderly conduct in the 1970s. Strout also was convicted of a number of hunting violations between 1986 and 2002, including trespassing, criminal trespassing, shooting from a motor vehicle or boat, discharging a firearm near a dwelling, hunting in a public way, reckless hunting, illegal possession of deer and littering. The violations were lodged in Hancock County.
    Assistant Attorney General Bill Stokes told a Bangor Daily News reporter Monday afternoon that his office would not discuss its sentencing recommendations publicly before the trial. He would only say that his office is free to argue for up to four years in prison for Strout.