A Whitefield man previously convicted of federal drug conspiracy will go back to federal prison for more than eight years for being a felon in possession of firearms — which he stole from a residence in the same town — and for violating terms of his federal supervised release.
Peter P. Poland, 44, was sentenced Friday in U.S. District Court in Bangor to seven years on the charge of being a felon in possession of firearms, and Poland was also ordered to serve an additional year and a day behind bars for violating supervised release on a 2012 conviction for conspiracy to distribute oxycodone. The imprisonment is to be followed by three years of supervised released.
Poland was indicted on the firearms charge in April 2016 and pleaded guilty in late September 2016.
Court documents say Poland had burglarized a Whitefield residence on March 7, 2016, while the owner was in Florida and stole a .45-caliber Smith & Wesson revolver, a .30-caliber Springfield Armory rifle and a 1903 Springfield Armory Mark 1 rifle.
After the burglary, Poland allegedly left the two rifles with one person and the revolver with a third person, none of whom were identified in court documents. All three firearms were recovered, according to the prosecution’s version of events submitted by Assistant U.S. Attorney David Joyce.
Poland was represented by attorney Ronald Bourget. Poland, who has been held most recently at the Somerset County jail, previously requested a new attorney; however, that request was withdrawn later.
Poland’s sentence on the drug conviction was 40 months in prison to be followed by three years of supervised release. He had been released from federal prison on May 16, 2015, because he had been held previously on that charge.
According to a report prepared by prosecutors in that case, Poland and other people got oxycodone and other drugs outside Maine and distributed them in Kennebec and Cumberland counties.
In late November 2015, Poland escaped serious injury in a fatal accident in Bernards Township, New Jersey.
On March 9, 2016, Poland was arrested by a Lincoln County sheriff’s deputy on charges of failing to stop for an officer, operating under the influence and terrorizing after being stopped on Mills Road in Whitefield.
A clerk in the Lincoln County courts said Friday she had no information about that case.
Betty Adams — 621-5631
Twitter: @betadams
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