Woman gets prison time on firearms charge Old Town felon’s changing versions of her admission key to sentence

BANGOR – An Old Town woman was sentenced last week in U.S. District Court to more than three years in federal prison for being a felon in possession of a firearm even though she admitted throwing the gun into the Atlantic Ocean.

Joan M. Zoulias, 24, was sentenced Thursday to 41 months in prison followed by three years of supervised release. She faced up to 10 years in prison and a fine of up to $250,000.

Under federal sentencing guidelines, she could have been sentenced to just 2 1/2 years in prison if she hadn’t told more than one version of the truth to investigators.

U.S. District Judge John Woodcock stayed the execution of her sentence until June 8.

Zoulias was indicted in August by a federal grand jury in Bangor. She was arrested in New Hampshire the next month and pleaded guilty to the crime in October.

Her previous felony convictions, both in Massachusetts, included breaking and entering during the daytime and possession of marijuana.

Zoulias admitted buying a 9 mm pistol in February from the Pawn Shop in Old Town, then selling it two days later. The results of the so-called instant background check required under the Brady law were delayed, and she picked up the gun just a few hours before the pawnshop owner learned she was a felon, according to court documents.

She told an agent with the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, according to court documents, that the man she sold it to in Maine sold it to a Massachusetts man and that the serial number had been removed.

Zoulias admitted in October that she changed her story in July, when the ATF agent interviewed her a second time. She said during that interview that she bought the gun for protection because someone had been stalking her. Zoulias again said that she sold the gun but this time added that she had later retrieved it.

Instead of turning the gun in to the authorities, she admitted placing it in a purse and hiding it in the bushes outside St. Joseph Hospital in Bangor. According to court documents, Zoulias also said she later moved the gun to a wooded area in Old Town near where she lived before taking it to Bar Harbor and tossing it into the ocean.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Joel Casey, who prosecuted the case, argued that Zoulias should be sentenced to between five and six years in prison under federal sentencing guidelines because the gun turned out to have an obliterated serial number, and because by disposing of the pistol the way she did and lying about it, Zoulias had obstructed justice.

He also recommended she not receive a lesser sentence because she pleaded guilty since she changed her story in interviews with the ATF agent.

Defense attorney James Nixon of Bangor urged the judge to sentence the defendant to between 30 and 37 months in prison under the guidelines, which would have included a reduction in her sentence because she agreed to plead guilty rather than go to trial.

Woodcock apparently did not accept all of the prosecutor’s recommendations, but the judge also did not reduce Zoulias’ sentence because she admitted her guilt.

He sentenced her to 41 months in a guideline range that recommended her sentence be between 41 and 51 months in prison.