LEWISTON — A local man has been sentenced to serve 18 years in federal prison after pleading guilty to being a felon in possession of ammunition.

The state dropped charges of domestic violence criminal threatening and reckless conduct against Jerome Hudson, 44, of Lewiston.

All of the charges were from a shooting incident at the Hillview Apartments complex on Jan. 13.

According to police records, Hudson was living at 77 Rideout Ave. with Jessica Morgan, 34, and her three children, then ages 7, 9, and 11. When the children’s father, Jonathan Smith, came to the apartment to deliver snacks to the children before school, which was something he did every day, he and Morgan argued.

According to police, Hudson woke up when he heard the two arguing, put a handgun in his pocket and went downstairs and confronted Smith.

The two men argued. After Smith left the apartment, Hudson went out the back door, circled around the building and began firing at Smith with a 9 mm handgun.

Hudson fired three shots as nearby children began filing outside to catch their school bus. No one was injured.

Hudson then ran from the scene.

According to court records, police searched Hudson’s apartment and found 38 rounds of ammunition in a bedroom safe. Some of the ammunition matched that used to shoot at Smith.

Hudson hid in the woods and then at a neighbor’s house for three hours after the shooting before he was arrested. He refused to tell police exactly where the gun was, only that he had dropped it into a storm drain so children wouldn’t find it and hurt themselves.

The gun was never recovered.

According to a news release from the U.S. Department of Justice, on June 11, Hudson pleaded guilty to a single charge of being a felon in possession of ammunition. On Monday, he was sentenced to serve 18 years, plus five years supervised release.

According to court records, Hudson, who is formerly from Danvers, Mass., has previous convictions for drug trafficking offenses and violent felonies in Massachusetts between 1997 and 2005. His prior convictions made him subject to an enhanced sentence in federal court as an armed career criminal, requiring a minimum of 15 years in prison.

The investigation was conducted by the Lewiston Police Department, the Central Maine Violent Crime Task Force and the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

Editor’s note: This story was updated; Smith never fired a gun in this incident.

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