PORTLAND, Maine — A married couple formerly from Windham and now living in St. Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands, was sentenced Thursday on federal firearm charges during a hearing before Judge D. Brock Hornby in U.S. District Court.
Thomas “Ted” Thomes, 56, was sentenced to 27 months in prison, followed by three years of supervised release, for being a felon in possession of firearms, U.S. Attorney Thomas E. Delahanty II said in a news release.
Renee Thomes, 52, received a 30-day sentence, also followed by three years of supervised release, for illegally transferring those firearms to an out-of-state resident.
Ted Thomes and Renee Thomes pleaded guilty to the charges against them on Sept. 30 and Oct. 1 of last year, respectively.
According to evidence presented during their plea and sentencing hearings, the couple stole several handguns in 2011 from a Windham neighbor for whom they were serving as caretakers.
In December 2011, Ted Thomes, a convicted felon who had a 2009 conviction in Maine in 2009 for being a felon in possession of firearms, took the stolen handguns to the home of another neighbor for safekeeping.
In June 2012, Renee Thomes retrieved the stolen handguns and illegally gave them to a New Hampshire auctioneer to be sold. The firearms were auctioned in July 2012 and the couple received about $11,000 in sales proceeds.
In sentencing Ted Thomes, Hornby noted the need to promote respect for the law, given the 2009 conviction for the same crime.
Renee Thomes was sentenced to prison time because she sent a letter to the court containing several material false statements in anticipation of her sentencing, according to federal prosecutors.
The investigation that led to the convictions was conducted by the Windham Police Department, the Maine attorney general’s office and the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.