Whitefield Man Sentenced for Illegally Possessing Firearm

Bangor, Maine:  A Whitefield man was sentenced yesterday in federal court in Bangor for being a felon in possession of a firearm, United States Attorney Halsey B. Frank announced.

U.S. District Judge Lance E. Walker sentenced Samuel Caison, 36, to 105 months in prison and three years of supervised release. Caison pleaded guilty on January 7, 2020.

According to court records, on April 22, 2019, a Winthrop Police Department detective saw an individual, later identified as Caison, carrying what appeared to be a firearm wrapped up in material in Augusta.  Caison placed the firearm in the trunk of a car.  Officers with the Augusta Police Department later located Caison driving the car and pulled him over.  Officers found a .22 caliber rifle in the trunk.  Caison was prohibited from possessing the firearm due to multiple prior felony convictions, including convictions for robbery in 2005, aggravated assault and illegal possession of a firearm in 2010, and terrorizing in 2013. 

The Augusta Police Department, the Winthrop Police Department, and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives 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.