PORTLAND – An Auburn man was sentenced to nearly five years in federal prison Monday nearly two years after he was charged with felony gun possession.

Zachary Paradis, 22, was ordered to serve 57 months in prison following a hearing in U.S. District Court in Portland.

The case came to a close almost two years after Auburn police began investigating Paradis in connection with an arson on Pine Street.

The July 2002 blaze ripped through an apartment house at 6 Pine St., forcing some residents to jump from windows and sending two men to the hospital with smoke inhalation.

Police at the time said Paradis had assaulted and threatened his girlfriend in a second-floor apartment shortly before the fire started.

A day after the blaze, Auburn police caught up with Paradis on Sabattus Street in Lewiston.

“They found him hiding under a bed,” said Assistant U.S. Attorney Toby Dilworth. “When they got him out, they found a firearm with the serial numbers scraped off.”

Paradis was arrested on charges of being a felon in possession of a firearm and criminal simulation. The latter charge accused Paradis of trying to alter the serial numbers.

Because Paradis had a 2001 conviction for aggravated assault, he was prohibited by law from keeping guns, court officials said.

Paradis was indicted on the federal charge of possession of a firearm by a felon. But by the time the case got to the sentencing phase, the charge against Paradis had been whittled down to possession of ammunition.

That happened after Paradis argued in court that police did not have the right to search the home where he was found the day of his arrest. The court agreed, but federal prosecutors appealed the decision.

In April 2003, the 1st Circuit Court reversed the earlier decision and federal prosecutors were given the go-ahead to try Paradis on the gun possession charge. Instead, he pleaded guilty in January to the lesser charge of possession of ammunition.

Other charges against Paradis were handled in Androscoggin County Superior Court. When he is freed from federal prison, he will be ordered to serve three years of supervised release.

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