At second plea and sentencing hearing in five days, suspect says, 'Prove it'

Rian Luther at what was to be his plea and sentencing hearing at Strafford County Superior Court on Friday. (The Lebanon Voice)

DOVER - For the second time in five days, a suspect in two high-profile consecutive-night robberies in Rochester last spring apparently agreed to, then walked away from a plea deal.

"I ask them to prove it," Rian Luther flatly told a judge on Friday after he laid out the amount of prison time Luther faced if found guilty.

"It's clear he wants this trial," the judge replied, setting a date of Feb. 21 for jury selection.

Neither Luther's public defender nor Assistant County Attorney Tim Sullivan had comment on why consecutive plea and sentencing hearings would be scheduled on Monday and Friday, only to have Monday's canceled outright, while Friday's hearing went on as scheduled, even transporting Luther from Merrimack County Jail to Strafford County Courthouse, before Luther, himself, said at the hearing he had no intention of accepting the deal.

Sullivan said he couldn't comment on details of the plea deal.

Luther, 33, of 34 Chestnut St., Rochester, Jacob Barrett-Carr, 23, of Somersworth; Cory-Lyn Luther, 27, also of 34 Chestnut St., Rochester; and Amber Glennon, 22, of 61 Hanson St., Rochester, were all indicted in August in connection with a May 21 robbery at the Sunset Motel on Milton Road and in September in a brutal home invasion that involved beating the male victim with a metal baseball bat that occurred on May 22 on Front Street in East Rochester.

Luther faces more than 50 years in prison if convicted on all counts, which include first degree assault, armed robbery, conspiracy to commit robbery, burglary, criminal restraint and two counts of falsifying physical evidence.

The three other defendants in the case also face trials in the next few months, Sullivan said.