BANGOR – A federal judge on Monday urged a LaGrange man to “avoid the unholy trinity of drugs, violence and guns” after his release from prison on gun and drug charges.

Richard A. Sibley Jr., 47, dressed in dark-blue jail pants and a short-sleeved top that barely covered his belly, wept as U.S. District Judge John Woodcock sentenced him to 21 months in prison. The judge also sentenced Sibley to three years of supervised release after he completes his sentence.

“You’ve led a long life of self-abuse,” Woodcock said.

“Finally, all the red lights you’ve been passing caused you to come to a complete and total stop,” the judge continued. “Mr. Sibley, you have a lot to make up for.”

Sibley did not address the court during the hearing.

Woodcock noted that Sibley had never married but had two children and owed back child support in Maine. He also had not worked for three years before his arrest.

Sibley told a probation officer his only income came from selling drugs and that daily he had been using between 1 and 5 grams of cocaine and smoking between one and 10 marijuana cigarettes at the time of his arrest, according to Woodcock.

His attorney, Richard Hartley of Bangor, said that Sibley’s arrest and his recent ill health had forced him to change. Sibley completed a drug rehabilitation program while in the Penobscot County Jail awaiting sentencing, the attorney said.

Sibley faced a maximum of 10 years in prison on one gun charge and three years on each of three drug charges. He also could have been fined a total of more than $500,000.

Based on federal sentencing guidelines, Sibley was likely to receive between 11/2 and two years in prison. He pleaded guilty in March to possession of a firearm by a felon and possession of marijuana, cocaine and cocaine base. His criminal history in state courts includes two convictions for burglary, two for domestic violence and three for possession of a firearm by a felon.

Assistant U.S. Attorney James McCarthy recommended that Sibley spend 21 months in prison. Hartley urged Woodcock to sentence Sibley to less time.

“I can’t sentence him to the low end [of the sentencing guidelines] considering the number of times he’s broken the law,” Woodcock said. “It wouldn’t be right.”