Former Windham Couple Sentenced on Firearms Charges

Contact: Darcie N. McElwee
Assistant United States Attorney
Tel: (207) 780-3257

Portland, Maine:  United States Attorney Thomas E. Delahanty II announced that Theodore “Ted” Thomes, 56, and his wife, Renee Thomes, 52, both formerly of Windham, Maine, and now of St. Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands, were sentenced today in U.S. District Court by Judge D. Brock Hornby on firearms charges.  Ted Thomes was sentenced to 27 months in prison and three years of supervised release for being a felon in possession of firearms. Renee Thomes was sentenced to 30 days in prison and three years of supervised release for illegally transferring those firearms to an out-of-state resident. Ted and Renee Thomes pleaded guilty on September 30 and October 1, 2014, respectively.

According to evidence presented at the plea and sentencing hearings, in 2011, the couple stole several handguns belonging to a Windham neighbor for whom they were serving as caretakers. In December 2011, Ted Thomes, a convicted felon who had been convicted in Maine in 2009 for being a felon in possession of firearms, took the stolen handguns to the home of another neighbor for safekeeping. In June 2012, Renee Thomes retrieved the stolen handguns and illegally gave them to a New Hampshire auctioneer to be sold. The firearms were auctioned in July 2012 and the couple received about $11,000 in sales proceeds.

In imposing the 27-month sentence on Ted Thomes, Judge Hornby noted the need to promote respect for the law given Ted Thomes’ 2009 conviction for the same crime.  Renee Thomes was sentenced to a term in prison because she sent a letter to the Court containing several material false statements in anticipation of her sentencing.
           
The investigation was conducted by the Windham Police Department; the Maine Attorney General’s Office; and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.