PORTLAND, Maine — A Yarmouth man who was shot six years ago along with his girlfriend, who later died of her wounds, was sentenced Thursday in U.S. District Court to 18 months in federal prison on a gun charge.
Cory Girard, 27, of Yarmouth pleaded guilty Oct. 1 to one count of possession of a firearm by an unlawful user of controlled substances, according to information posted on the court’s electronic case filing system.
In addition to prison time, Girard was sentenced to three years of supervised release.
U.S. District Judge D. Brock Hornby ordered Girard to begin serving his sentence Feb. 26. He remains free on $10,000 unsecured bail until then.
Girard was a star athlete and scholar in high school, but a near-fatal car crash derailed his college plans, his attorney, Peter DeTroy of Portland, wrote in his sentencing memorandum.
“During his senior year at Deering High School he was the captain of the football, track and field, and lacrosse teams,” the lawyer wrote. “He worked diligently in the classroom and was enrolled in honors and college preparatory classes. His efforts culminated in a partial scholarship to attend Bridgton Academy for a post-graduate year and then Boston College as an undergraduate. The expectation was he would play Division 1 football.
“Weeks after he graduated from Deering High School in 2006, Cory was involved in a near-fatal car accident that effectively ended his athletic career, terminated his scholarship opportunity, and profoundly affected the arc of his young life,” DeTroy wrote.
Girard became addicted to oxycodone to manage the lingering pain from the crash, the sentencing memorandum said. In 2008, he began selling the drug to pay for his addiction but was able to become sober in 2012.
Girard’s girlfriend, Darien Richardson, a 25-year-old South Portland native who graduated from Bowdoin College, was shot while sleeping next to him in their 25 Rackleff St. apartment in Portland on Jan. 8, 2010, by a masked intruder or intruders, according to a previously published report. She died suddenly the following month from a blood clot resulting from the gunshot wound while visiting a friend in Florida.
Her murder is classified as a cold case.
Girard was hit by the gunfire but survived.
By pleading guilty, Girard admitted he had been dealing large amounts of oxycodone since August 2009 between New York and Maine and using marijuana daily. The night of the shooting, he had a pistol and a loaded magazine under the mattress of the bed in which he slept, according to the prosecution version of events to which he pleaded guilty.
He faced up to 10 years in federal prison and a fine of up to $250,000. Under the prevailing sentencing guidelines, the recommended sentence was between 18 and 24 months.
BDN writer Seth Koenig contributed to this report.