PARIS — A Porter man convicted of murder in 1975 was sentenced to a year in jail after pleading no contest on a felony weapons charge.

Frank Cugliata, 62, plead no contest to a single count of possession of firearms by a prohibited person in Oxford County Superior Court on Tuesday afternoon. The Class C felony carried a maximum of five years in prison and a fine of up to $5,000. 

On July 2, 2014, Cugliata was arrested by a Maine State Police trooper after a parole officer found a revolver, a pistol and a shotgun in his home. 

Speaking after the sentencing, Assistant District Attorney Joseph O’Connor argued for a two-year sentence because the three loaded weapons in his residence were not used for hunting and similar to those used in the slaying for which he was originally incarcerated. 

The weapons were hidden around the house, O’Connor said. 

A message left with Cugliata’s attorney, Kelly McMorran, was not returned Tuesday afternoon. 

Cugliata was barred from possessing firearms after being convicted of murder,  along with a co-defendant, in Lincoln County Superior Court in the death of Vincent Serra of Medford, Mass., in 1974.  

All three men were living in Massachusetts at the time, and had driven to Nobleboro to purchase approximately 10 pounds of hashish, according to Lewiston Daily Sun archives. Serra’s body was found off Route 1 with multiple gunshot wounds from a shotgun and handgun. 

Cugliata, who was in his 20s at the time, was arrested on a murder charge two weeks later. A note was found in the car bearing the names of Cugliata and another defendant.

A passing truck driver witnessed gunshots fired into the darkness, and was later passed by a vehicle registered to Cugliata, whose license plate number was forwarded to Maine State Police. He was extradited to Maine later that year. 

A jury found him guilty in March of 1975 and he and his co-defendant were sentenced to life in prison by a Lincoln County Superior Court Judge. 

The case was upheld by the Maine Supreme Court in 1977; months afterward, the U.S. Supreme Court declined, without comment, to review the case. 

Since being paroled about a decade into his life sentence, Cugliata is not believed to have committed a crime, according to O’Connor. It was not known if the charge would effect his parole status.

ccrosby@sunjournal.com

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