Man who got slap on wrist for drug crimes Wednesday charged with theft Thursday

Cory M. Deshong (Rochester Police photo)

ROCHESTER - A Sanbornville man and sometime Rochester transient who received suspended or deferred sentences after pleading guilty to multiple drug charges on Wednesday was arrested the next day for alleged thefts at The Ridge Market Basket.

Cory M. Deshong, 32, and another subject were both reported as active shoplifters, according to police log dispatch notes that came in around 3:30 p.m. on Thursday.

The two subjects then reportedly went into the woods behind The Ridge, prompting a half dozen Rochester Police Officers to attempt to set up a perimeter on the other side of nearby power lines.

As they were seeking to hunt the pair down, a caller from 10 Rod Road in Farmington called police dispatch to say a male just came out of a woodline and asked for directions to Somersworth, according to dispatch notes.

Moments later another call came in saying a male showed up at his home, knocked on the door and asked for a ride to Somersworth.

Eventually Deshong was arrested and charged with theft by unauthorized taking.

Another man, Mathew R. Montana, 30, of Winnacunnet Road, Hampton, was also arrested and charged with willful concealment and resisting arrest.

Under the sentencing terms handed down by Superior Court Judge Daniel E. Will on Wednesday, Deshong saw six months of his sentence suspended for two years and the other six months deferred for a year. The terms also said all the time would be suspended if he complied with the terms of his sentence and remains on good behavior.

Most of the drug charges adjudicated on Wednesday originated in Lee, but the felony fentanyl possession charge occurred in Rochester on Dec. 17, 2020, when an employee of the Circle K in Gonic called police to report there was a man who had been "banging around" inside the bathroom and left the convenience store with "a needle sticking out of his arm," according to a Rochester Police affidavit.

A Rochester Police officer caught up with Deshong at the corner of Gear and Gonic roads, where he allowed a consent search and was found to have a loaded needle full of heroin in his pants pocket.

Deshong, formerly of Wakefield, was reported as living in Rochester in woods near the Cocheco River in an August Rochester Police Arrest Log.

Strafford County Jail personnel said today neither Deshong nor Montana were in custody there.