BANGOR, Maine — A 28-year-old Verona Island man pleaded guilty Tuesday to a federal unlawful possession of a firearm charge during an appearance in U.S. District Court.
Court records indicate that investigators found a Hi-Point .380-caliber semiautomatic handgun while conducting a search warrant at the home of Oscar Nunez, U.S. Attorney Thomas Delahanty II said in a news release.
A former resident of Bronx, New York, Nunez was prohibited from possessing a firearm because of a felony drug conviction out of New York, Delahanty said. A Maine State Police Crime Lab forensic analyst found Nunez’s DNA on the handgun, he said.
In September of last year, while serving a three-year sentence for selling crack cocaine in Hancock County, Nunez pleaded guilty to arson and criminal threatening in Penobscot County after he set a fire near an Orrington home.
Nunez admitted that in July 2012, he poured gasoline around an Orrington home and set it on fire after shots were fired at the house, endangering, but not injuring, its occupants. The house sustained minor damage from the fire, according to a previously published report.
A sentencing date was not set at that time because Nunez had not yet waived indictment and had not entered a plea with regard to his federal gun charge, his attorney Hunter Tzovarras said.
In a plea agreement with Penobscot County District Attorney R. Christopher Almy, an attempted murder charge will be dismissed at sentencing. The deal calls for Almy to recommend a sentence of 24 years with all but 14 suspended. Tzovarras is expected to argue for less time to serve.
The charges in both counties stemmed from an investigation by the Maine Drug Enforcement Agency, according to a previously published report. Police found 66.1 grams of crack cocaine in Nunez’s Verona Island apartment.
The incident on July 22, 2012, at the home on Johnson Mill Road in Orrington, stemmed from what Nunez believed was his former driver’s interference in the drug operation. The driver was not involved in the drug operation, Almy said last fall. It was not determined who fired the gunshots. Nunez faced up to 30 years in prison and a fine of up to $50,000.
Nunez now faces up to 10 years in prison and a fine of up to $250,000. He will be sentenced after a presentence investigation report is completed by the U.S. Probation Office.
The investigation that led to the firearms charge and subsequent guilty plea was conducted by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, state fire marshal’s office, Maine Drug Enforcement Agency, Maine State Police, and Hancock and Penobscot county sheriff’s offices.