Topsham Man Arrested in Bath with 20 Guns Pleads Guilty

Christopher Tucker, 34, of Topsham pleaded guilty Feb. 17, 2026 in U.S. District Court in Portland to a federal charge of failing to surrender for service of his sentence after U.S. Marshals apprehended him in Bath, Maine and returned him to custody.

The theft that set the case in motion occurred in May 2024 in Brunswick, when officers responding to a citizen's report found a garage door open and evidence of forced entry to gun storage. The U.S. Attorney’s Office described the scene, saying, “officers found that the door of the residence’s garage was open and cabinets inside appeared to have been pried open, with ammunition scattered on the floor.” A witness supplied a vehicle description, officers located a matching car, and investigators found 20 firearms inside the vehicle.

Brunswick Police arrested Tucker after he fled on foot from the vehicle; court records and law enforcement accounts show Tucker was the registered owner and only occupant of the car at the time of arrest. Federal filings state Tucker had multiple prior felony convictions that prohibited him from possessing firearms, and he later pleaded guilty to federal counts charging him with being a felon in possession of firearms and possessing stolen firearms.

U.S. District Judge Nancy Torresen in Portland sentenced Tucker on the firearms convictions to 75 months in prison followed by three years of supervised release. At that sentencing the court set a self-surrender order to the Bureau of Prisons; Tucker failed to report as ordered, prompting a separate federal prosecution for failure to surrender for service of sentence.

After Tucker did not report, the U.S. Marshals Service tracked and located him in Bath and took him into federal custody. Prosecutors filed the failure-to-surrender charge in U.S. District Court in Portland and Tucker entered a guilty plea to that count on Feb. 17, 2026; a sentencing date for the failure-to-surrender conviction has not been reported in court filings available at the time of this article.

Statutory exposure cited in federal filings and court statements indicates the firearms offenses carry significant maximum penalties and fines, and the additional failure-to-surrender count could add federal prison time and fines if the court imposes additional punishment. The firearms sentence already imposed remains 75 months in custody and three years of supervised release as entered by Judge Torresen in Portland.