PALMER — A Wasilla man arrested as part of the investigation into the 2007 robbery of eight Talkeetna trick-or-treaters was sentenced Thursday to seven years in prison.

Aaron Tolen, 25, was not charged with the robbery. Instead, he was charged with 66 counts of theft, burglary and other crimes. All the charges related to eight burglaries in the Talkeetna area, the loot from which was found as troopers were investigating the trick-or-treat robbery.

Tolen agreed in September to plead to one count of burglary in exchange for the seven-year sentence. When his turn came to speak Thursday, he was circumspect. “I’m sorry for my participation in those burglaries,” he said. “If I had had better friends at the time I wouldn’t be involved in this case.”

Both sides agreed that Tolen was not a part of the robbery. Instead, they placed the blame for the act on his girlfriend, Amber Martin, and another woman, Kendra Butts, who was dating the fourth defendant in the case, Michael Scott Wilson.

“I’m not trying to be involved with no robberies. I already had a robbery case. I’m not trying to pick up another one,” Tolen said.

Court records show a prior robbery case for Tolen dated Sept. 15, 2001. That case apparently ended with Tolen pleading to one of the burglary counts.

Wilson is set for trial Dec. 22. Butts and Martin have pleaded guilty to robbery and will each serve 11-year terms.

Prosecutor Trina Sears said that although it may seem like Tolen is getting off light with a seven-year sentence from a 66-count indictment, she said that the sentencing range for a burglary is five to seven years.

“Mr. Tolen today really is getting the maximum,” she said.

The maximum, she said, is appropriate given the nature of the burglaries. One victim, she said, noted that all the doors were left open — leading to property damage — and the toilet was clogged.

Sears also said Tolen is due to accept a deal next week that will have him serving a 10-year term on federal charges of being a felon in possession of guns.

In his remarks, Tolen’s attorney, Bruce Brown, said Tolen and Wilson deliberately chose homes they knew not to be inhabited to avoid any confrontation with homeowners.

“They looked at seasonal cabins and they looked at the snow to make sure no one had been there,” Brown said.

Superior Court Judge Beverly Cutler, in accepting the seven-year deal, took little solace in the idea that Wilson and Tolen looked for deserted homes.

Using the analogy of a rapist who might claim to have sought out someone who wasn’t a virgin to lessen the crime, she said, “Rape is rape. Burglary is burglary.”

Referencing Tolen’s admissions to having a drug problem, the judge told him “even the things you are saying illustrate what an evil insidious drug methamphetamines are.”

She said she hoped he considered what the drugs were doing to his brain and that the damage he’d done was not permanent.

“I hope so not, too, your honor,” Tolen said.

Contact Andrew Wellner at andrew.wellner@frontiersman.com or 352-2270.