BANGOR – A Milo man who took the unusual step of withdrawing his guilty plea and proceeding to trial on drug charges last year was sentenced Monday in U.S. District Court to nearly 10 years in prison.

Winslow Newbert, 39, was sentenced to 115 months in federal prison. He was found guilty of possessing cocaine with the intent to distribute after a four-day jury trial in December.

Newbert also was sentenced to three years of supervised release after he completes his prison term.

He has been held in the Piscataquis County Jail since April 2006 when his bail was revoked because he failed to stay in touch with pretrial services, according to court documents. That time will be applied to his sentence.

He faced up to 20 years in prison and a fine of up to $1 million.

Because of his previous convictions, Newbert was classified as a career criminal and faced substantially more prison time than if he had had a clean record. If he had never been convicted of a felony and had not gone to trial, he faced between 15 and 21 months in prison, according to court documents.

The case began nearly six years ago on Feb. 28, 2002, when Newbert’s Milo home was searched. Law enforcement officials seized more than half a pound of cocaine, digital scales and handwritten records that Newbert acknowledged were related to drug transactions.

A federal grand jury indicted Newbert in July 2005. He originally pleaded guilty to the charge in June 2006, but changed his mind about six weeks later citing new evidence. Newbert claimed he had pleaded guilty to protect his wife, who was not charged, and that prescription medication he was taking at the time he entered the plea had clouded his judgment.

In a rare decision, U.S. District Judge John Woodcock, who presided over the trial and imposed sentence, allowed Newbert to withdraw his guilty plea in January 2007 and go to trial.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office two months later appealed Woodcock’s decision to the 1st Circuit Court of Appeals in Boston. A three-judge panel upheld his decision in October and the trial was held in December.

Prosecutors presented evidence at the trial that Newbert traded cocaine for stolen property.

jharrison@bangordailynews.net

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