A 26-year-old man who was found with six stolen firearms in his tent in Northwest Portland and a stolen vehicle nearby was sentenced to just over three years in federal prison for being a felon in possession of firearms.

On Jan. 23, 2016, Portland police caught Eric Christian Nunez with five rifles and one handgun that had been reported stolen from a Damascus home three days earlier.

Nunez was living in a tent beneath Highway 30 near Northwest 19th Avenue and Thurman Street, and using a stolen vehicle that contained syringes and hypodermic needles, according to police and prosecutors. He denied that he stole the firearms but said he had found them in the truck of the car, and intended to sell them for heroin.

Eric Christian Nunez

"He was a desperate heroin addict leading a pitiful existence,'' his defense lawyer Tyl Bakker told U.S. District Judge Anna J. Brown. "He took them as a crime of financial opportunity to fuel his heroin addiction. He didn't fire the guns. He didn't operate them.''

A Portland police officer who was patrolling the area of Northwest 19th Avenue and Thurman Street in late January 2016 first noticed an Acura Integra with a Washington license plate parked oddly in a no-parking zone. He ran the car's plate and it came back as stolen. A short time later, the officer saw Nunez open the driver's door, then the trunk and a passenger door and collect several items from the vehicle and take them to a nearby blue tent, according to a probable cause affidavit.

The officer approached the tent and asked the occupants to come out. The officer said he heard a "metal on metal'' noise that sounded like someone chambering a round into a firearm The officer and his sergeant stepped back and ordered those inside the tent to step out.

Once Nunez emerged, police saw multiple rifles on the floor of the tent. Another man in the tent, Jordan Alexander Clark, told police he had touched one of the guns to see if it was real but didn't handle any of them.

Nunez, who was on probation at the time, was charged in state court and then in federal court with being a felon in possession of a firearm. Nunez said he feels lucky that he was arrested in the case, as he's found a deep faith in God since he returned to custody a year and a half ago. He said heroin filled a void in his life that's now being filled by God.

"My sinful life controlled what I did. I didn't have the liberty to do what was right,'' Nunez told the judge. "Heroin ruled...I have shackles on my feet but I wake up this morning rejoicing because no matter what happens I win....I'm very thankful for this situation. I'm growing. I'm changing.''

The judge thanked Nunez for sharing his personal faith journey. "It's important people have something to motivate their behaviors,'' Brown said.

She accepted a request by Nunez's lawyer to sentence Nunez to three years and one month in prison, not the three years and 10 months sought by Assistant U.S. Attorney Ben Tolkoff. Tolkoff said Nunez's history of heroin abuse, coupled with his possession of multiple stolen firearms on the streets in Portland was an "eyebrow-raising'' public safety concern.

The judge ordered Nunez to participate in drug treatment while serving his sentence. "Treatment isn't an option. It's a requirement,'' and it's not "because the Lord'' says it, but because the judge is ordering it, Brown said.

"I think you're right in looking at the arrest as a changing point,'' Brown said. 'If it's faith that's motivating you, then God bless you....I think we have your attention.''

Nunez's co-defendant, Jordan Alexander Clark, 43, pleaded guilty in state court to being a felon in possession of a firearm in the case and was sentenced in late March to three years of probation. Brown said she had great concern that the Multnomah County prosecutor allowed the case against Nunez's co-defendant Clark to be "written off that way.''

Nunez had told police when he was arrested, however, that Clark had nothing to do with the offenses, according to court records.

Nunez's state charges of felon in possession of a firearm, possession and unauthorized use of a stolen vehicle were dismissed in March and replaced by the federal gun indictment.

-- Maxine Bernstein

mbernstein@oregonian.com

503-221-8212

@maxoregonian