RUTLAND — The United States Attorney’s Office for the District of Vermont announced that Timothy Gabriel, 31, who most recently has been living in the Rutland area, was sentenced today in United States District Court in Burlington to 60 months of imprisonment following his guilty plea to a charge that he possessed a firearm as a convicted felon.
Senior U.S. District Judge William Sessions III also ordered that Gabriel serve a three-year term of supervised release after he completes his prison sentence. He directed that the federal sentence run concurrently to state sentences that Gabriel is serving on related and unrelated cases.
Gabriel has been held in federal custody since his arrest in October.
According to court records, someone stole a Vermont State Police cruiser from a residence in Rutland where it was parked in the pre-dawn hours of October 17. A few hours later, the car was found parked behind a downtown Rutland business.
Investigators found that a police-issued Sig Sauer rifle had been forcibly removed from a secure locking device in the vehicle. Surveillance camera footage from businesses near where the cruiser was found showed the car enter a parking lot before dawn.
The footage depicted a man, later identified as Timothy Gabriel, get out of the car, then leave the area with what appeared to be a rifle in his hand.
DNA evidence later connected Gabriel to blood found inside the stolen cruiser.
Gabriel is prohibited from possessing any firearms because he has several prior convictions in Vermont for felony offenses.
Gabriel was arrested in Burlington on the afternoon of October 18. Court records show that Gabriel traded the stolen rifle for drugs.
Law enforcement recovered the police rifle from a bag abandoned beside U.S. Route 7 near Bennington.
Acting United States Attorney Michael P. Drescher commended the collaborative investigatory efforts of the Vermont State Police, the Rutland Police Department and the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
