BANGOR — A Winthrop man and convicted felon was sentenced to 15 years in prison Monday after he was spotted with a pistol on his hip at a Chelsea car repair shop.

Jonathan Bowers

Jonathan Bowers, 32, pleaded guilty to being a felon in possession of a firearm in September 2017, after he was spotted, on surveillance footage, with a 9-millimeter pistol in a holster on his hip on April 9, 2016.

Bowers was prohibited from possessing firearms due to his four felony convictions for burglary and three felony convictions for theft. Due to the burglary convictions, he was subject to a 15-year mandatory minimum sentence under the federal Armed Career Criminal Act, according to a news release from U.S. Attorney Halsey B. Frank.

An indictment said Bowers has three convictions each for burglary and theft from July 2006 and a burglary conviction from July 2010, all in Kennebec County Superior Court.

According to the news release, Bowers said in court: “Had I known what I was actually facing by possessing a gun I would have distanced myself as far as possible from them.”

He was sentenced Monday in Bangor by U.S. District Judge John A. Woodcock Jr. Bowers is to serve 15 years in prison with two years of supervised release.

The federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and Kennebec County Sheriff’s Office investigated the case.