Peabody man sent to jail for 2010 crime spree

SALEM – A 29-year-old Peabody man who admitted going on a crime spree last November to support his addiction will spend five years in state prison before being placed on probation for another three years.Brandon Francis McCurdy, of 126 Shore Drive, made his plea Monday morning in Salem Superior Court to seven indictments.McCurdy pleaded guilty to three counts of armed robbery as well as assault and battery with a dangerous weapon, assault with a dangerous weapon, attempted larceny of a motor vehicle and impersonating a police officer before Judge Timothy Q. Feeley.Feeley agreed to impose the sentence agreed upon by Assistant District Attorney Melissa Woodard and defense lawyer Scott F. Gleason.Woodard told Feeley that, at trial, she would have established evidence that the incidents all occurred in Peabody on either Nov. 19, 2010 and Nov. 20, 2010.Shortly after midnight on Nov. 20, police were called to a home on Lowell Street, near the 7-Eleven Store, where a 17-year-old youth told police he was walking home from the store when a man came up behind him, held a knife to his stomach and said, “What are you, a tough guy?” as he demanded the youth turn over his cell phone and $2.The youth went inside his home, told his father and the two called police as they watched the robber jump into a blue Subaru and drive away. But the robber quickly returned again to the 7-Eleven where they saw him rob a 25-year-old man of his wallet, $200 in cash and his ATM card at knifepoint.Later, a 22-year-old woman went to the police station and told them that as she came out of the 7-Eleven, she heard someone yell at her and thought it was her brother. As she approached, the man wielding a knife demanded she turn over her money, $20, and he fled.Nearly five hours later, police responded to a disturbance at the Tedeschi’s Market, located on Main Street, on a report of a customer harassing people.They learned that McCurdy tried to steal a car from a man outside the store at knifepoint, but failed and instead went inside the store pretending to be a police officer.Police piecing together the information from the earlier incidents at the 7-Eleven and then the Tedeschi incidents were able to charge McCurdy with the spree.Woodard told Feeley that all the victims were notified of the plea but chose not to attend. The youth and his father “hoped” that part of the punishment would be drug treatment, as she asked the judge to adopt the agreed recommendation.Gleason said his client has had a “significant terrible drug problem” and has not been able to come clean.As part of the probationary terms, Feeley ordered that McCurdy be evaluated for mental health and substance abuse treatment and counseling as deemed necessary by probation with random screenings and was ordered to stay away from the victims involved in the case.The judge credited McCurdy 367 days he has spent in jail in lieu of bail awaiting trial on the case.