SACO, Maine — Police in Maine arrested a man last year after he reportedly placed razor blades into pizza dough intended for supermarket shoppers.
Nicholas Mitchell, 38, was taken into custody October 11, 2020 after a customer at a grocery store in Maine reported finding the razor blades hidden inside a prepackaged Portland Pie pizza dough that had been purchased from a Hannaford’s Supermarket, Law Officer reported.
Mitchell was indicted by a federal grand jury in March on two counts of tampering with a consumer product. Now he will reportedly plead guilty to the charges. He is expected to enter his plea at a formal hearing on June 24th, Central Maine reported.
“A customer had purchased a Portland Pie Pizza dough and located razor blades inside the dough. The review of store security surveillance footage revealed a person tampered with the packaging of several Portland Pie Pizza doughs,” the police wrote in a Facebook post last year.
Mitchell will reportedly plead guilty to the listed charge of tampering with a consumer product and is apparently willing to accept a sentence of up to four years and nine months in prison, although a judge could issue a harsher sentence. He has been in jail since his arrest.
The defendant will reportedly agree with the prosecution’s version of the tampering when he pleads guilty. As a result, the government will ask for a reduction in his sentence due to the agreement, Central Maine reported.
“Had the case proceeded to trial, the government would produce evidence that would establish beyond a reasonable doubt that on October 5, 2020, this defendant knowingly tampered with pizza dough by placing razor blades into the dough that was sold to consumers at a Saco supermarket,” the plea agreement reportedly says.
Prior to committing the crimes, Mitchell had been fired from his job as a forklift operator for It’ll Be Pizza, the Scarborough company that manufactures pizza doughs to be sold in Hannaford and other grocery stores, according to the local news organization.
