Winthrop Man Sentenced to 15 Years for Unlawfully Possessing a Firearm
BANGOR, Maine: A Winthrop man was sentenced yesterday in federal court in Bangor for being a felon in possession of a firearm, U.S. Attorney Halsey B. Frank announced.
U.S. District Judge John A. Woodcock, Jr. sentenced Jonathan Bowers, 32, to 15 years in prison and two years of supervised release. Bowers pleaded guilty on September 14, 2017.
According to court records, on April 9, 2016, while at a car repair shop in Chelsea, Maine, Bowers carried a 9 mm pistol in a holster on his hip. Surveillance footage captured him in possession of the pistol. Law enforcement officers later recovered the pistol and the holster. Bowers was prohibited from possessing firearms because of his four felony convictions for burglary and three felony convictions for theft. Due to his burglary convictions, he was subject to a 15-year mandatory minimum sentence under the Armed Career Criminal Act.
In his allocution, Bowers told the court, “Had I known what I was actually facing by possessing a gun I would have distanced myself as far as possible from them.”
The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and the Kennebec County Sheriff’s Office investigated the case. This case was brought as part of Project Safe Neighborhoods (PSN). PSN is the centerpiece of the Department of Justice’s violent crime reduction efforts. PSN is an evidence-based program proven to be effective at reducing violent crime. Through PSN, a broad spectrum of stakeholders work together to identify the most pressing violent crime problems in the community and develop comprehensive solutions to address them. As part of this strategy, PSN focuses enforcement efforts on the most violent offenders and partners with locally based prevention and reentry programs for lasting reductions in crime. For more information about PSN, please visit http://www.justice.gov/psn.
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