Laconia man gets 3½- to seven-year sentence for meth sales

LACONIA — A Laconia man was sentenced Monday to 3½ to seven years in prison for methamphetamine sales.

Peter Dauphin, 46, of 19 Appleton St., in Laconia, received two concurrent 3½- to seven-year sentences. The sentences were imposed Monday by Superior Court Justice Tina Nadeau, and will run concurrently with a 50-month federal sentence for drug trafficking which is due to begin next Monday.

Dauphin stood accused of two counts of possession of methamphetamines with intent to distribute. Laconia police had arrested him on April 25, 2015, as he was driving his car at a high rate of speed in downtown Laconia. Police subsequently found one ounce of crystal meth under the car seat. Police took him into custody and, during an interview, he told officers that he was a dealer and user.

On April 26, 2015, officers searched Dauphin’s home and found seven ounces of meth as well as $10,000 in cash, Assistant Attorney General Benjamin Agati told the hearing in Belknap  County Superior Court.

In March 2016, Dauphin’s attorney, Mark Sisti, successfully argued that the drug evidence seized should be suppressed because Dauphin, not the police, was in control of the car when he was arrested, and therefore the searches of his car and home were illegal. The prosecution appealed that ruling, and last December the New Hampshire Supreme Court reversed the decision by Judge Peter Fauver, and remanded the case back to the Superior Court for trial.

While Dauphin was free on $65,000 cash bail on the state drug charges, he was arrested on Oct. 19, 2017, by police working in conjunction with the FBI Safe Streets Gang Task Force, acting on a federal warrant. On five separate occasions in April and May of 2017, Dauphin allegedly sold “ice” methamphetamine to an individual who was cooperating with law enforcement officers. All of the transactions took place at Dauphin’s automotive repair shop, Gilford Auto Repair, on Lakeshore Road, in Gilford, according to the U.S. Attorney’s office.

Dauphin was sentenced to 50 months in federal prison on July 20 in U.S. District Court in Concord.

At Dauphin’s plea-and-sentencing hearing Monday, Agati asked that Dauphin be given concurrent six- to 12-year sentences which would run concurrently with the federal sentence.

Sisti argued for the 3½- to seven-year sentences, telling the judge that, since his arrest last October, Dauphin has completed a 90-day residential drug treatment program, has graduated from the out-patient Nathan Brody program at Horizons Counseling, and now is attending four to five Narcotics Anonymous meetings a week.

“He hasn’t been sober for 20 years until now,” Sisti told Nadeau, who participated though a video hookup.

Sisti said Dauphin is scheduled to surrender voluntarily next Monday at the federal prison in Petersburg, Va., to begin serving his sentence.