Judge doles out 30-year sentence for probation violation

INVERNESS — A young man’s fateful decision to break the terms of his probation has drawn him a 30-year sentence.
 

Special to the Chronicle

Robert Egan - gets 30-year sentence.

Circuit Judge Ric Howard sentenced 25-year-old Robert John Michael Egan Wednesday  for “absconding” from a probationary jurisdictional area in Texas to his home state of Maine.
 

Egan and two others were arrested in February of 2008 in Homosassa for robbery with a deadly weapon and other charges. Egan pleaded no contest to the charges and was sentenced to two years in prison and three years probation in November of 2008. His probation included community service and the ability to move to his home state and county with the provision that he registered with a probation officer at these locations.
 

Egan left Florida and moved back to Maine, but soon left Maine for Texas to be with his wife, who was in the military.
 

He reportedly met a probation officer on two occasions in Texas and all the rules of his probation were explained to him.
 

However, after a fight with his wife, Egan abruptly left Texas and returned to Maine without going through the proper channels to maintain his probationary status.
 

He was later arrested and returned to Florida.
 

Howard said Egan also violated terms of his community service agreement.
Before he was sentenced, Egan and his attorney, Assistant Public Defender Luke Waatti tried to make a case for leniency.
 

Waatti said what Egan did was “not a woeful violation” of the rules of probation. He said Egan had a fight with the wife and removed himself from the situation by moving away.
 

Egan also said he worked on his GED while he was in prison and had always worked since his arrest.
 

But prosecutor Paul Norville asked for at least the minimum according to sentencing guidelines, which is 13 years. He said Egan flouted probation rules and “absconded to Maine.”
 

Howard said the crime — which involved a firearm — can fetch up to life in prison and scolded Egan for blowing his chances by violating the terms of his initial sentence, which he thought was extremely lenient.
 

Howard said he didn’t know how it’s done in Texas — crimes involving the use of a firearm — but here in Florida “we are damn serious” about them.
Egan’s 30-year sentence gives credit for time served.
 

Egan and his co-defendants were arrested in connection with an armed robbery reported on Feb. 7, 2008, at the Kwik Save Food store on W. Miss Maggie Drive in Chassahowitzka.
 

Store owner Vijaya Yakkanti, then 38, and store clerk Randy Kelley, then 45, had just closed the store when they were attacked by the suspects (one of them armed with a handgun) dressed all in black, according to the Citrus County Sheriff’s Office arrest report. The thieves appeared to have been waiting outside the store to rob them, according to the
report.
 

Both victims were battered and later were transported to Seven Rivers Regional Medical Center for treatment of their wounds. Egan and his friends reportedly stole several thousand dollars, a wallet and a cell phone from the two men.
 

Chronicle reporter A.B. Sidibe can be reached at 352-564-2925 or asidibe@
chronicleonline.com.