BANGOR – An Edmunds man serving a six-month sentence in the Washington County Jail for slaughtering animals, including a neighbor’s pet, pleaded guilty Monday in federal court to killing and attempting to kill federally protected wildlife.

Kevin S. Farley Jr., 45, pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court to killing a harbor seal, illegally hunting wood ducks and attempting to kill a harbor seal and a cormorant in October 2005 in Washington County.

Farley had been the target of a grand jury investigation, U.S. Magistrate Judge Margaret Kravchuk said in accepting his guilty pleas Monday.

In September, Farley was sentenced to six months in the Washington County Jail in Machias after pleading guilty to five counts of night hunting and five other charges, including cruelty to animals.

He also was ordered to pay a $6,000 fine and $500 in restitution to the owners of the pets he killed.

Farley faces up to a year in prison and a fine of up to $15,000 on each of the four federal misdemeanor charges.

A sentencing date is not expected to be set until after a pre-sentence report has been filed, which could take up to 90 days.

Farley would serve his federal sentence after completing his sentence on the state charges. He will not earn credit toward his federal sentence while incarcerated in Washington County on the state charges.

The Maine Warden Service charged Farley with five counts of night hunting and five other charges in early 2006 after more than a year’s investigation in which a game warden went hunting undercover with Farley.

Farley admitted in federal court Monday that on Oct. 13, 2005, he aimed his rifle at harbor seals at Reversing Falls in Edmunds Township. The next day at a boat landing in Perry, Farley shot in the head and killed a harbor seal in front of the warden, according to court documents.

That same day, Farley shot and appeared to wound a double-crested cormorant and, later, retrieved a wood duck from a pond in Edmunds he admitted shooting on Oct. 13, 2005.

At his sentencing in state court, Farley told the judge he didn’t know why he went on the killing spree and blamed the wardens who were working undercover at the time.

He said they befriended him and “pressured” him to kill the animals.