PORTLAND, Maine — A Boothbay Harbor man was sentenced Tuesday in U.S. District Court to 16 months in federal prison for stealing a 1971 Chevrolet Malibu convertible and driving it to Missouri last year.
Ronald Fuller, 63, also was sentenced to an additional four years for violating his supervised release when he stole the car.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Craig Wolff, who prosecuted the case, recommended Fuller serve a total of six years — one year for the car theft and five years on the violation. Defense attorney James Hewes of South Portland urged U.S. District Judge George Singal to sentence Fuller to 14 months on each charge and have him serve them concurrently.
In his sentencing memorandum, Hewes said Fuller was abused as a child by relatives and by staff when he was incarcerated as a teenager at the Boys Training Center, now Long Creek Youth Development Center in South Portland. While not yet 18, Fuller was held illegally at the Maine Correctional Center until a state representative intervened, Hewes wrote in urging the judge to be lenient.
Fuller waived indictment in November and pleaded guilty to transportation of a stolen vehicle. He also admitted he violated his federal probation on gun charges.
In addition to violating federal law, Fuller was suspected of committing dozens of commercial and residential burglaries in Lincoln County and surrounding counties, according to a previously published report.
Police recovered two truckloads of jewelry, coins, currency and other collectibles from Fuller’s residence on Crest Avenue on March 28, the Boothbay Register reported that same day.
Fuller was charged in March with three counts of burglary, and one count each of theft by unauthorized taking, criminal mischief and possession or transfer of burglary tools, according to federal court documents. Since then, he also has been charged in Sagadahoc County.
He has pleaded not guilty to the charges, which are pending in state court.
Fuller was arrested April 10 in a rock quarry in St. Francois County, Mo., about 70 miles south of St. Louis. He was found in a tent in the quarry near the convertible, valued at $35,000, which was stolen April 8 from a Woolwich man, according to federal court documents.
U.S. marshals brought Fuller to Maine in May, according to the federal court’s electronic case filing system.
Police found in Fuller’s tent about “$8,300 in cash, paperwork for the Malibu, hand-written directions from Maine to Missouri, and a large amount of gold and silver jewelry,” according to the prosecution version of events to which Fuller pleaded guilty last year.
Fuller had served about 3 1/2 years of a five-year term of supervised release when he was arrested last spring. He was sentenced in January 1998 in federal court in Portland to 14 years in federal prison by U.S. District Judge Gene Carter after pleading guilty to two counts of being a felon in possession of a firearm and one count of being a felon in possession of ammunition.
He was arrested on those charges the previous summer after an antiques dealer browsing at a Woolwich flea market recognized jewelry that had been stolen from a Wiscasset store, according to a previously published report. Police interviewed Fuller briefly before he took a loaded .32 caliber semiautomatic pistol from his van and bolted toward woods behind the flea market. An officer tackled him about 200 yards from the van.
In 1998, Fuller was classified as an armed career criminal under the federal sentencing guidelines due to his prior convictions in Maine, New Hampshire and Florida. He was released from federal prison in fall 2009 and began serving his supervised release Oct. 15, 2009, according to court documents.
On the car theft charge, he faced up to 10 years in federal prison and a fine of up to $250,000. He also could have been sent back to prison for five years for violating his supervised release.
If convicted on the burglary counts, the most serious charges, in state court, Fuller faces up to 10 years in state prison and a fine of up to $20,000.