BANGOR – The man who sold oxycodone out of his Airport Mall jewelry store was sentenced Tuesday to 21/2 years in federal prison.

The sentence was fashioned to send a strong message to the community about drug dealers and their activities, U.S. District Judge John Woodcock said in handing down the sentence.

Robert O. Brewer III, 47, of Bangor also was sentenced to three years of probation and ordered to forfeit nearly $750,000 in jewelry that was seized on April 9, 2003, the day after he and others were arrested when federal drug agents raided the Diamond Connection.

Brewer spent four months in a federal drug rehabilitation facility after his arrest. He and others told the court that he returned a changed man, devoted to helping others stay sober and off drugs.

“Abstinence has enabled me to be a good father and have good relationships with my family,” Brewer told the judge in U.S. District Court. “I ask the court to allow me to continue the work I’m doing [in local 12-step programs] and on myself.”

“I’ve struggled with trying to measure and balance your past with your potential,” Woodcock said from the bench. “I have no doubt about your potential. … The focus of these hearings often is on the [defendant’s] potential and the past takes a back seat. I’m not here to sentence you for what you have done since your conviction, but for what led up to your conviction.

“Mr. Brewer, you were a long-term OxyContin dealer in this area, and I can’t ignore that. [A fellow recovering addict] eloquently described addiction as ‘our own personal hell.’ What you did before your conviction was help a number of others to … glimpse their own personal hell.”

A group of 20 family members, friends and supporters were in the courtroom during the hearing. A number of them wept as Woodcock imposed the sentence.

Brewer was part of a long-running interstate drug business that involved acquiring drugs from Rhode Island to be distributed in Maine. He pleaded guilty and was convicted 13 months ago of conspiracy to distribute oxycodone, possession with intent to distribute oxycodone and conspiracy to distribute prescription drugs without a license.

The federal sentencing guidelines put his sentence in the 70- to 87-month range, but Woodcock granted the U.S. attorney’s motion for a downward departure after a sealed hearing the public was not allowed to attend. That allowed the judge great latitude in fashioning Brewer’s sentence, according to Assistant U.S. Attorney Daniel Perry, who prosecuted the case.

Brewer’s attorney, J. William Battan of Waterville, urged the judge not to sentence Brewer to more jail time.

Perry told the court that he did not think time served was an appropriate sentence but did not ask that a specific sentence be imposed.

Woodcock considered a sentence that would have included two years of home confinement and five years of probation but rejected it.

In what the judge called a rare ruling, he allowed Brewer to remain free until April 15.

Brewer will be credited for the eight months he was detained in the Cumberland County Jail while awaiting sentencing. He was taken into custody after he entered his guilty plea, but released in October while the U.S. Supreme Court decided the constitutionality of the federal sentencing guidelines.

Earlier this year, the high court made the guidelines advisory rather than mandatory. If the justices had overturned them entirely, Brewer would have been sentenced to time served.

Others sentenced in connection with Brewer’s drug operation include: Thomas Merritt Jr., 20, of Baileyville; Morgan Drew, 20, of Calais; Allan Geiser, 33, of Brewer; and William Hiller, age unknown, of Providence, R.I.

According to court documents, Brewer’s case is connected to the case against William Leland, 48, of Alton. Leland pleaded guilty more than a year ago to federal drug charges, but has filed a motion to withdraw his plea, which Woodcock has taken under advisement.

Prosecutors have not explained how the two cases are connected.