PARIS — A man found dead after a gunfight with police in Mexico on Sunday had an extensive, violent criminal history dating back over 35 years, according to court documents. 

On Monday, Maine State Police identified Steven Piirainen, 52, of Paris as the individual found dead in a stolen pickup truck after a standoff with law enforcement. 

Witness statements and police affidavits from Piirainen’s criminal history suggest he was well known as a repeat offender, having been found guilty of crimes on over a dozen occasions in four decades. 

His last listed address was a Hill Street residence owned by an individual who posted bail for Piirainen on five occasions since 1986, according to Oxford County deeds records. 

Two weeks ago, Piirainen was released on bail from Oxford County Jail in Paris after being arrested on a charge of attempting to steal personal property stored on a boat at White’s Marina in Norway.

Police said they found Piirainen and another suspect intoxicated trying to start their car with the wrong set of keys, which had been stolen from a truck parked at the marina. According to the police affidavit, in the backseat of the car was a deep-sea boat battery and personal swimming gear.

A grand jury was scheduled to review those charges in November.

Piirianen’s run-ins with the law date to 1979, when he spent 364 days in jail for theft. Since then, he has served prison sentences for a host of charges, including assault, burglary and failure to submit to arrest. 

In 1990, Piiranen was ordered to spend eight years in prison, all but three years suspended, for stealing $645 in cash from The Big Apple store in Paris and threatening to kill the store clerk.

Following his release in 1993, he was arrested again on charges of burglary, theft and criminal mischief and ordered to serve multiple three-year sentences.

In 2008, Piiranen was indicted on charges of aggravated attempted murder and elevated aggravated assault after he was accused of stabbing an Oxford man five times in an apartment building after he failed to produce money Piirainen demanded.

The charges were elevated because Piirainen was convicted of aggravated assault in Androscoggin County in 2004 after he and a man beat a man in his apartment and robbed him of marijuana and cash before leading police on a high-speed chase in 2003.

The attempted murder and assault charges were later dropped by the district attorney’s office because witnesses in the case could not be located.

On Jan. 8, Piirainen pleaded guilt to a domestic violence assault charge for injuring a relative and violating the conditions of his release.

A day later, he also pleaded guilty to a charge of assault for punching Oxford Police officer Zane Loper during an arrest seven months earlier for violating a protective order of the same individual.

He was sentenced to serve two simultaneous 364-day prison sentences, which were later suspended.  He spent 30 days in Oxford County Jail.

As state police and the Attorney General’s office investigate the incident surrounding Piirainen’s death, the two officers who fired at him, Maine State Trooper Paul Casey and Mexico reserve officer Dean Benson, have been placed on administrative leave with pay, which is standard with all police shootings, according to  Maine Department of Public Safety Spokesman Steve McCausland.

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