A Massachusetts man was sentenced Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Bangor to three years in federal prison, followed by three years of supervised release, for stealing firearms in April 2022 from a licensed dealer in downtown Waterville.

Ryan Ansart, 22, of West Springfield, Massachusetts, was also ordered to pay $17,253.37 in restitution, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Maine said in an announcement.

Ansart pleaded guilty Aug. 22, 2024.

An accomplice, Damiean Marcial-Alexander, 22, of Waterville was sentenced earlier this month to three years in federal prison, followed by three years of supervised release, and ordered to pay $17,253.37 in restitution.

In April 2022, Ansart and Marcial-Alexander broke into J.R.’s Trading & Pawn at 100 Elm St. in downtown Waterville and stole multiple firearms, prosecutors said. They used a hammer to break a glass display case to gather the guns, officials said at the time.

Marcial-Alexander lived across the street from J.R.’s Trading & Pawn when the burglary occurred.

According to a theft/loss report submitted by the store owner to the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, 15 firearms were reported stolen, including six revolvers and nine semiautomatic pistols.

Evidence collected included Instagram and text messages planning the theft, including a map to the location from Marcial-Alexander’s apartment.

Marcial-Alexander and Ansart were arrested in Massachusetts in 2023 and charged with the burglary.

A cellphone confiscated from Ansart contained photographs that showed Ansart and Marcial-Alexander displaying the stolen weapons, according to a criminal complaint filed in the case.

Investigators relied on an informant, text messages between Marcial-Alexander and Ansart and Marcial-Alexander’s Instagram messages to further implicate the pair.

Officials said Ansart and Marcial-Alexander sold some of the guns in the weeks following the burglary.

The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives investigated the case with assistance from the Waterville Police Department, according to the U.S. attorney’s office.