Lubec man gets 33 months for Machias hardware store gun theft
A Lubec man will serve 33 months in prison for breaking into a Machias hardware store and stealing three handguns.
U.S. District Court Judge Lance Walker also sentenced Jeremy Lyons, 29, to three years of probation and to pay restitution, the U.S. attorney’s office said Monday.
Lyons forced open a window into Pineo’s True Value on Oct. 15, 2021. He broke into a gun case and stole three Colt handguns, which police believe were later traded for cocaine at a home on Beal Street in Machias.
That house was being used by alleged drug dealers who have since been charged in the Nov. 4, 2021, killing of Brandin Guerrero. Two men — Jorge Luis Pagan-Sanchez, 42, of Taunton, Massachusetts, and Nathanael Genao, 24, of New Bedford, Massachusetts — have since pleaded guilty to their roles in Guerrero’s death. It was not clear from court documents if the stolen firearms later were used in Guerrero’s shooting.
Lyons was recorded by surveillance video inside and outside the store during the burglary. His face was not visible in the video, but police identified him as a suspect after finding his DNA on a Gatorade bottle that the burglar appeared to have with him in the video and which was later found in a mowed field next to the store.
Lyons also was recorded by the store’s security cameras scoping out the firearms several days earlier when he visited the store during business hours.
When Lyons became aware that he was a target of a U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives investigation, he threatened a confidential source who had provided information to investigators and later challenged the source to a fight. Lyons later asked the confidential source to testify for him in his case, according to the U.S. attorney’s office.
Lyons pleaded guilty in December 2022 to breaking into Pineo’s True Value, stealing the guns, retaliating against a witness and witness tampering.