PARIS – Dean Smith III received a one-year prison sentence on Tuesday at Oxford Superior Court for stealing a handgun from a temporary evidence holding area of the Oxford County Sheriff’s Office.

Smith pleaded guilty to theft of a firearm and possession of a firearm by prohibited person.

Superior Court Judge Roland C. Cole told Smith he also had to serve another year in prison for violating his probation on a previous burglary count.

OCSO Capt. James P. Miclon said Smith was a trustee at the jail in February and that on Feb. 21 he was cleaning near the boiler room that is adjacent to the temporary evidence area. This area was fenced in with wire mesh and the door was padlocked.

Miclon said that the mesh stopped short of reaching the ceiling and Smith was able to squeeze in between the ceiling and a piece of lumber atop the mesh.

Miclon said Smith grabbed a 22-caliber handgun that deputies had taken earlier in the year on a search warrant. Smith then stuffed the gun in his pants and hid it in the old root cellar, which is across from the rear entrance of the County building.

When he was released from the jail on Feb. 24 he retrieved the gun and took it to his home in Oxford. He later sold it to a man living in Bridgton.

“On June 6 I got call at from one of the correction officers asking if I was aware of a missing firearm that was in the temporary holding facility,” Miclon said. “Another inmate told the corrections officer that a firearm had been taken by a trustee.

“We interviewed the inmate who told us that Smith had taken gun and where it might be,” he said.

OCSO Sgt. Chris Wainwright, Deputy Brian Landis, Cpl. Matthew Baker and Miclon staked out the trailer where Smith lived, and at 2:30 a.m. interviewed Smith and learned he sold the gun.

The Bridgton man had brought the gun to a Buckfield home and left it there in a paper bag.

“We recovered the gun on June 8,” Miclon said. “The people in Buckfield didn’t even know there was even a gun in the bag.”

Miclon said the temporary holding area is no longer used for evidence and that the stolen handgun was the only firearm there.

“We did an inventory and no other items are missing,” he said.