Robert Snith takes the witness stand again

Robert Smith was recalled to the stand, after Judge Beaulieu ruled on Harris’ motions, to continue his testimony. Under questioning, he said that he became acquainted with Paul Pollard in 1978. And around the end of 1980 or the beginning of 1981, He said Pollard began asking if he wanted to make some easy money. But after the robbery, he only saw him occasionally, and Christmas cards, stuff of that nature.      Harris asked Smith, “You had occasion to send a clipping from a newspaper to Mr. Pollard, didn’t you?”      “Yes.”      “Why did you send him the clipping?”      “I knew that he had been arrested for that fire at one time and that he had been cleared of it, and I just thought he would like the information, sort of like ‘F.Y.I.’ sort of thing.”      Harris said, “So you thought he’d like the information that some other people had been arrested for it?”      “Just for his information.”      “Now you say you had known that he had been arrested for that and cleared, you say. How did you know that?”      “A day or so after the fire, him and Mr. Cormier stopped at my house to borrow my car to get Mr. Pollard out of state. ...They just said that they needed my car to transport Paul out of the state because there was some trouble in the Bangor area. So a few days later I found out what was going on. And I provided the bail for Paul to leave, to get out of the County Jail for that incident.”      “So you’re saying that a couple of days after the fire, Mr. Pollard came, wanted to use your car to get of state?”      “Lionel wanted to use my car to take Paul out of the state.”      “When was this?”      “For that same incident. He was out of state, maybe it was a week, I don’t know, some period of time. And I provided bail to get him out of County Jail until he could have a chance to go to Florida.”      “So what you’re saying to us is that you lent a car so he could get out of the state. He then came back into state [March 3, 1981] and he was arrested and you got him out on bail?”      “He turned himself in, I believe.”      “Now, Mr. Smith, all of this occurred prior to the time that you committed this robbery that you’ve told us about?”      “That’s correct.”      Smith told Attorney Harris that when Shuman first came to see him that he wouldn’t talk with him, but did talk only on advice of his Counsel. Smith explained why he didn’t want to speak with the police.      “I remember they first proposed dropping the mandatory four years and for my cooperation in testifying [at] this trial; but, at that time, Mr. Cormier hadn’t been arrested and I told them I wouldn’t do it because I didn’t want to be sitting around for a year or so, because I didn’t believe they could catch Mr. Cormier because of their past failures to get him in the past when I mentioned things to them.”      Harris said, “You had in fact discussed things with the police before, that Mr. Cormier had done—certain crimes that they were accusing you of. Isn’t that correct?”      Smith said that was correct and that he had been arrested and subsequently convicted for possession of stolen property. He told the police that Cormier had stolen jewelry and other items but Cormier was never charged. This is the Mary Thompson robbery. She lost jewelry and guns. I later spoke with Thomson and she told me that the authorities told her that the men who robbed her were dangerous and that the crime was included in some kind of a plea bargain with the robbers. End of second day.

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