Ellsworth Man Sentenced to 78 Months for Illegal Possession of a Firearm and Ammunition

Ellsworth Man Sentenced to 78 Months for Illegal Possession of a Firearm and Ammunition

The following press release was published by the U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the United States Attorneys on Jan. 5, 2017. It is reproduced in full below.

According to court records, on May 31, 2014, Barnard barricaded himself in his camper with a.22-caliber semi-automatic rifle and ammunition beginning a 14-hour stand-off with police. During the stand-off, Barnard fired the weapon and proclaimed that “this is war." Near the end of the standoff, Barnard emerged from his camper holding his rifle. Despite commands to put the rifle down, Barnard raised and pointed the rifle in the direction of the police officers. Barnard was prohibited from possessing the firearm and ammunition because he had been previously convicted of state felony offenses in California and Maine and of being a felon in possession of a firearm in U.S. District Court in Maine.

In imposing the sentence, Judge Woodcock said that “short of an actual injury or death from use of a firearm, this type of possession is the most serious and egregious imaginable."

The investigation was conducted by the Maine State Police; the Ellsworth and Bangor Police Departments; the Maine Attorney General’s Office; the Maine State Police Crime Laboratory; and the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

Source: U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the United States Attorneys

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