A Lewiston man was sentenced Monday to six years in federal prison for being a felon with a gun.
Nicholas Coy, 32, pleaded guilty to the Class C felony in February. Once released, he will be on supervised release for three years, according to court records.
U.S. District Court Judge George Z. Singal imposed the sentence in federal court in Portland.
Three local police officers responded to a complaint on Knox Street in Lewiston on Dec. 12, 2016, after the tenant of the apartment there called 911 to report someone in her apartment needed medical attention, Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael Conley wrote in a court memorandum.
The woman, who identified herself to police, said her friend, later identified as Coy, was “flipping out” and banging things around in the bathroom, Conley wrote. She also told a dispatcher that she believed Coy had used narcotics. Police said the tenant and her three children were in the apartment when they arrived. Coy was in the bathroom yelling “things that did not make any sense,” Conley wrote.
Before entering the bathroom, Coy had taken an F.I.E. Standard .38-caliber special revolver out of his pants, removed the cylinder and placed the gun and cylinder on top of the refrigerator, Conley wrote. The woman had hidden the cylinder and ammunition so Coy wouldn’t be able to harm anyone with it, Conley wrote.
Police entered the bathroom where Coy was dressed only in pants, but no shirt or shoes. He appeared agitated and began “twitching uncontrollably,” Conley wrote. Officers said Coy appeared to be under the influence of narcotics. He was taken by medical responders to a nearly hospital.
Coy had been convicted earlier in Androscoggin County Superior Court of robbery and theft in 2010 and aggravated assault in 2006.
The maximum penalty for the gun possession charge is 10 years in prison.
Coy’s attorney, David Beneman, had been seeking a four-year sentence for his client.
“Nick has struggled his entire life with ADHD, and impulse control likely contributed to by his bipolar disorder,” Beneman wrote in a memorandum to the court. “He started from a difficult childhood and has yet to fully mature. He barely knows his biological father. His adoptive father was an alcoholic and drug abuser who abandoned Nick when he divorced Nick’s mother. His next father figure, also a drinker, was emotionally abusive to both Nick and his mother. Nick was referred to special education in the first grade and continued through eighth. He was hit by a car and broke his leg at age twelve. Shortly after that he began drinking, and by age thirteen he was already using opiates.”
After dropping out of school, he completed his GED at age 20, Beneman wrote.
In prison, Coy must enroll in a 500-hour comprehensive residential drug and alcohol treatment program and be evaluated by the Bureau of Prisons for mental health treatment, the judge ordered.
The case was investigated by the Lewiston Police Department; the U.S. Marshals Service; and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.
cwilliams@sunjournal.com
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