SPRINGFIELD – A man who admitted to being a drug user in possession of a firearm has been sentenced to time served followed by three years of supervised release.
Paul Lachapelle Jr., 27, of Springfield, Vermont, was sentenced on Friday by.
He had previously pleaded guilty to the offense.
According to court records, Lachapelle Jr. was arrested on May 30, 2022, after Springfield Police responded to a possible burglary in progress at a residence.
The report stated that the burglary suspect had a handgun holstered to his hip.
Springfield Police encountered Lachapelle Jr. and another person at the residence.
After a brief conversation, law enforcement determined that Lachapelle Jr. threw a handgun into a tall grassy area nearby.
Springfield Police searched that area and recovered a .22 caliber revolver.
Police interviewed Lachapelle Jr., who admitted to consuming controlled substances on a daily basis from September 2021 through May 30, 2022.
Lachapelle Jr. claimed he knew the homeowner and that the homeowner would have approved of his actions.
Lachapelle Jr. initially denied possessing a handgun while admitting that he had a knife, but after police confronted him with the homeowner’s reports of seeing the handgun on Lachapelle Jr.’s person via the residence’s surveillance video, Lachapelle Jr. admitted to police that he threw the handgun into the tall grass near his vehicle.
The case was investigated by the Springfield Police Department, Vermont State Police, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
