BANGOR, Maine — A New York man who in August completed a 32-month sentence for selling crack cocaine in Hancock County was sentenced Thursday on additional state and federal charges that stemmed from his drug dealing.
Oscar Nunez, 27, of Verona Island and Bronx, New York, was sentenced in the morning in U.S. District Court to six years and 10 months in federal prison on a gun charge. He was sentenced in the afternoon at the Penobscot Judicial Center to 20 years in state prison with all but eight years suspended for arson and criminal threatening in connection with an incident at a home in Orrington more than three years ago.
Superior Court Justice William Anderson ordered Nunez to serve the sentences at the same time.
Outside the judicial center, Penobscot County District Attorney R. Christopher Almy pointed to Nunez’s case as one of the reasons Gov. Paul LePage has been seeking more funding for drug investigators and prosecutors.
“This is an example of what drug trafficking can do in our communities,” he said.
The charges in both counties stemmed from an investigation by the Maine Drug Enforcement Agency. Police in 2012 found 66.1 grams of crack cocaine in Nunez’s Verona Island apartment. They also found a gun at his apartment. He was prohibited from possessing a gun because of a felony drug conviction in New York.
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 homeowner was a taxi driver whom Nunez paid in heroin to drive him, according to Almy.
By pleading guilty to arson and criminal threatening, 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 had minor damage from the fire, according to a previously published report.
Nunez pleaded guilty in September 2014 to the Penobscot County charges. He pleaded guilty to the federal charge of being a felon in possession of a firearm in January.
After completing his federal sentence, Nunez will be on supervised release for three years. He was sentenced Thursday to be on probation on the state charges for four years.
In a plea agreement with Almy, an attempted murder charge was dismissed Thursday. The deal called for Almy to recommend a sentence of 24 years with all but 14 suspended, which he did Thursday. Almy also asked that Nunez serve his state sentence after he completed his federal sentence.
Defense attorney Hunter Tzovarras of Bangor urged the judge to sentence his client to 18 years with all but 10 suspended and subtract the three years he already has served on the Hancock County charge.
Nunez faced up to 30 years in prison and a fine of up to $50,000 on the arson charge. He faced up to 10 years in prison and a fine of up to $250,000 on the federal charge.