BANGOR – By the time Joshua W. Cass is released from prison, a Superior Court judge pointed out Tuesday at the Bangor man’s sentencing, the 21-year-old will have spent one-third of his life behind bars.

“It really is a tragedy that someone your age is looking at so much time in prison,” Justice Jeffrey Hjelm told Cass in Penobscot County Superior Court. “The real tragedy is that you’ve only been able to find peace and stability since you’ve been incarcerated.”

Hjelm sentenced Cass to a total of nine years in prison on four burglary charges and one count of possessing a pipe bomb after he pleaded guilty to the charges on Tuesday. The judge also revoked Cass’ probation on his previous conviction for a November 2003 burglary and sentenced him to the remainder of that sentence – one year and nine months in prison.

The sentences on the state charges are run concurrently with each other and with Cass’ term in federal prison. He was sentenced on Thursday in U.S. District Court in Bangor to 10 years on federal gun charges.

The nine-year sentence was a joint recommendation made by Michael Roberts, deputy district attorney for Penobscot County, and Cass’ attorney, Don Brown of Brewer.

Burglary charges against Cass for a dozen camp break-ins at Green Lake a year ago are pending in Hancock County Superior Court. Those cases are expected to be resolved before the end of the month.

Cass, a redhead who looked like he was still in his teens, did not make a statement in Penobscot County Superior Court. Wearing a long-sleeved green plaid shirt over black cargo pants and black sneakers, he answered the judge’s questions in a clear, calm voice, showing little emotion.

Roberts told the court that Cass and several friends embarked on a series of burglaries last April looking for guns they could hand over to a drug dealer who had threatened Cass and demanded $1,300 in drug money, the prosecutor said. Cass and others were arrested almost one year ago after they broke into Cass’ father’s home.

“These burglaries and these crimes represent the very worst of crimes we have in Eastern Maine related to drugs,” Brown said Tuesday. “From the day he was arrested, Josh has taken responsibility for his crimes and never tried to blame someone else.”

Neither his father nor the other burglary victims appeared Tuesday in court. Cass uncle, the Rev. Will Cass, pastor of Downeast Community Fellowship in Trenton, attended the hearing but did not address the judge. Twenty years ago, the minister was incarcerated for armed robbery, he said after his nephew’s sentencing.

In addition to Cass, Douglas Urquhart Jr., 27, Joshua L. Emerson, 21, and James A. Emerson, 23, all of Bangor, and Megan McGraw, 20, of Eddington were indicted in connection with the break-in.

Jeffrey Cass, a firefighter in Corinth, returned home to his Black Road residence on his lunch break on April 27 to discover his son, along with Joshua Emerson and Urquhart, trying to steal hunting equipment, police said. James Emerson and McGraw were arrested nearby in a waiting car.

McGraw was sentenced last month in Penobscot County Superior Court to five years in prison with all but nine months suspended, and three years of probation for driving the get-away car in the break-in at Cass’ father’s home.

Charges against the Emerson brothers are pending in state and federal court. Cases against Urquhart are pending in Penobscot and Hancock counties.