BANGOR, Maine — A Swan’s Island fisherman with a long criminal history was sentenced to seven years in federal prison on a gun charge on Tuesday in U.S. District Court, according to information posted on the court’s electronic case filing system.
Shaun G. Lemoine, 36, waived indictment and pleaded guilty in March 2015 to one count of being a felon in possession of a firearm.
In addition to prison time, Lemoine was sentenced to three years of supervised release.
He has been held without bail since Nov. 2, 2015, when he turned himself in while on bail at the Hancock County Jail, so the time he was held would be applied toward his sentence, according to a previously published report.
Lemoine was arrested Feb. 4, 2015, after police were provided with information that Lemoine had guns in his home. Because he is a convicted felon, Lemoine is prohibited from possessing firearms.
Before this sentencing, Lemoine had been jailed over a half dozen times including being sentenced three times in federal court, according to a press release issued by the U.S. attorney’s office on Tuesday. Lemoine also obstructed justice in this case by pressuring a witness to provide false information, the press release said.
In imposing the lengthy sentence, U.S. Judge John Woodcock said that Lemoine’s attempt to cover up his crime and his lengthy criminal history spoke “volumes about [his] utter disrespect for the law” and that “the only answer [was] to place [him] in jail,” the release said.
In 2007, Lemoine was sentenced to serve 18 months in federal prison after he purchased seven guns in Southwest Harbor while under indictment in state court on charges of burglary and theft.
Three years later, he was sentenced to serve another eight months behind bars — two of them for violating the terms of his federal supervised release — after he stole more than $2,000 worth of lobster from a Swan’s Island lobster dealer in 2008.
In 2012, he was sent back to federal prison for seven months for again violating the terms of his federal supervised release after he was found guilty of a state civil charge that he molested another lobsterman’s fishing gear.
Police found two rifles in a black metal gun case and associated ammunition, according to court documents.
BDN writer Bill Trotter contributed to this report.