Calais man to serve 2 years on drug charge

BANGOR – A Calais man was sentenced Monday in federal court to more than two years in prison for possession with intent to distribute OxyContin.

Jessie Ulvila, 20, was sentenced in U.S. District Court in Bangor to 27 months in federal prison. He also was sentenced to three years of probation and must pay a $500 fine. He must forfeit more than $2,000 in cash, the money he had in his possession when he was arrested.

Ulvila pleaded guilty to the charge in October. He faced up to 20 years in prison and a $1 million fine.

In sentencing Ulvila, U.S. District Judge John Woodcock spoke about the effect the painkiller OxyContin, frequently smuggled across the border from Canada, has had on Washington County.

“OxyContin has gotten a hold on Washington County and gotten it by the throat in ways that I see every week here,” the judge said Monday. “There is nothing worse than being a traitor to your own people, and that’s what you were.”

Woodcock also told Ulvila that in selling drugs to other young people in Washington County, he had acted like “a traitor” and “victimized the hope of the future.”

Ulvila, wearing a red plaid short-sleeved shirt and slacks, did not react as Woodcock handed down his sentence. Family members and friends quietly wept as they crowded onto the bench behind the defense table. One by one, Ulvila hugged each of them before he was placed in handcuffs and removed by U.S. marshals from the courtroom.

He was arrested Jan. 2, 2004, in the parking lot of Marden’s Department Store in Calais after meeting with a Clifton couple.

William and Brenda Sjostrom, both 42, were arrested later that same day not far from their home.

The couple’s jury trial is scheduled to begin in federal court in Bangor on April 11.