Man detained in Brewer gun theft

BANGOR – A Vermont man charged with stealing 16 guns last month from a Brewer shop waived his right to a preliminary hearing Thursday and was ordered detained pending the outcome of his case.

Tennyson Marceau, 19, of Lyndonville, Vt., had already appeared in U.S. District Court in Burlington, Vt., on May 18. At the time, he was ordered transported to Bangor for further proceedings.

In Bangor, U.S. Magistrate Judge Margaret Kravchuk granted Marceau’s waiver, saying there was probable cause in the 24-page affidavit to continue the case.

She also appointed Virginia Gvilla, a federal public defender, as his attorney.

Marceau and Sayer Tamiso, 18, of Hampden, who was released May 16 to his mother’s custody on $100,000 secured bail, face federal charges of conspiracy, theft of firearms from a federal dealer and possession of stolen firearms.

The federal firearms charges stem from an April 23 break-in at Maine Military Supply, located at 735 Wilson St. in Brewer.

The two are accused of throwing a landscaping rock through the display window, loading a backpack and a duffel bag with 16 handguns and rifles, mostly assault-style, and trying to move them out of state to sell them.

The list of stolen items includes five 9 mm pistols, with two being semiautomatic, a MAC 10 .45-caliber semi-automatic assault pistol, six rifles, two being M-16s and four AK-47 assault rifles, according to court documents.

Seven of the guns and store tags from another seven were recovered in Vermont, according to federal prosecutors, but no additional information was available Thursday.

Frank Spizuoco, owner of the Brewer store, said after court that the stolen weapons were worth “thousands of dollars.”

Marceau was arrested May 11 in St. Johnsbury while serving a 20-day work release sentence for his April 29 arrest in Vermont on possession of 138 grams of marijuana with intent to distribute.

Tamiso was arrested the same day on the Maine side of the U.S.-Canada border.

The maximum penalty for conspiracy is five years in prison and fines of up to $250,000. The theft of firearms and possession of stolen firearms can carry up to 10 years in prison and $250,000 in fines.

The two also could face robbery charges in Penobscot County Superior Court.

The incident, the two suspects and what is thought to be Tamiso’s white 1994 Jeep Cherokee were caught on tape by video surveillance cameras, but the suspects concealed their faces and the vehicle’s license plate was not visible.

Security at Maine Military Supply has increased since the incident, Spizuoco said.

“I created a room within the store that is a gun room,” he said. “This is a whole other room and at night it’s locked.”

The store’s display glass has also been changed to a stronger variety and six cameras have been added to the nine-camera video surveillance system.

“We’re upgrading our video system with night-vision capability and audio,” he said.