PORTLAND — An Auburn man who smashed the window of an Auburn gun shop and stole 22 firearms was sentenced Monday to 12 years in prison.
Tomas Johnson, 40, pleaded guilty in April to being a felon in possession of a firearm, theft from a federally licensed firearms dealer, possession of a stolen firearm and possession with intent to distribute cocaine base (crack). All are federal felonies.
U.S. District Court Judge John A. Woodcock Jr. sentenced Johnson to 120 months in prison on the gun-related charges and 144 months on the drug charge. Both sentences will run concurrent with each other.
Prosecutors said Johnson had entered J.T. Reid’s Gun Shop in Auburn on Oct. 20, 2021, where he spent more than an hour quizzing employees about guns, especially Glocks, and handled a semi-automatic rifle equipped with a large-capacity magazine.
Because Johnson is a convicted felon, he is barred from having any guns in his possession.
Four days after visiting the shop, Johnson threw a rock through the glass window of the shop’s front door and stole 22 guns, which were mostly Glock pistols, according to court documents.
He wore a backpack, a hood, a mask and gloves and, after stealing the guns, fled the scene, according to court documents.
Federal agents executed a search warrant for Johnson’s cellphone call logs and his Google account, which showed he conducted at least nine Google searches on the day before the theft seeking more information about the gun shop, including where it was located and how to drive there, according to court records.
In the hours after the theft, he conducted Google searches for “what’s the difference between a Glock 17m” and “what does the ‘m’ mean after Glock 17m,” when a Glock 17 and a Glock 17M were two of the types of Glock pistols that were stolen from the gun shop, prosecutors wrote in court records.
In an effort to find and detain Johnson, an agent called a phone number associated with him and, posing as a drug user, arranged to buy a small amount of crack cocaine from him at a location in Lewiston.
As Johnson approached that location, two agents parked nearby exited their vehicle, prompting Johnson to flee on foot, according to court records. As he ran, he tossed a gun under a building. The gun was later recovered by the agents and identified as one of the guns stolen from the Auburn gun shop.
After a brief foot chase, agents captured Johnson, arrested him and found crack cocaine on him, according to court records.
He later told agents he was a drug user and convicted felon. He said he knew the agent who had arranged the drug buy was a law enforcement officer, but he planned to meet with him anyway because he needed the money to repay a debt, according to court records.
Johnson said he was planning to bring “the Glock” recovered by agents to a third person in exchange for “a bag of dope.”
After his release from prison, Johnson will be on supervised release for three years during which he must not have any controlled substances, alcohol or other intoxicants and must engage in alcohol and drug abuse therapy and undergo testing, as directed by his supervisor.
He may not have any guns or other dangerous weapons nor be in the company of anyone he knows who has any of those items.
After having lived in Biddeford, Johnson had moved to the Lewiston and Auburn area and stayed with friends there at the time of his arrest, according to the U.S Attorney’s Office for Maine.
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