A Hancock County man who set fire to another man’s lobster boat moored in Stonington Harbor nearly two years ago pleaded guilty on Friday in U.S. District Court in Bangor to a federal charge of destruction of a vessel.

Jeremy Eaton, 39, of Stonington was already serving an unrelated state sentence at the Maine Correctional Center in Windham when he was brought before Judge John A. Woodcock Jr. in federal court to face the charge.

Jeremy Eaton

In the state case, Eaton was sentenced on July 20, 2015, to serve 18 months in prison on two counts of theft by unauthorized use of property, according to Maine Department of Corrections records.

In the federal case, Eaton walked after dark to Stonington Harbor on April 16, 2014, removed gas cans from a docked skiff and then used another small boat to get across the water to where The Heritage, a 35-foot fishing vessel was moored. He then emptied the gas cans onto The Heritage and set it ablaze, according to a prosecution document filed with the court.

Had the case gone to trial, prosecutors would have called two witnesses who testify that Eaton admitted to them that he set the fire, Assistant U.S. Attorney James Moore wrote in the prosecution document.

“Marine Patrol Officer Owen Reed would provide an evidentuary foundation for admission of surveillance video footage received from a Stonington Harbor business, which shows a person resembling Jeremy Eaton operating a motor boat toward the F/V Heritage and then returning from the part of the harbor where the lobster boat was moored before the time of the fire,” Moore wrote.

Eaton’s sentencing date was not available in federal court records. He faces up to 20 years in prison and a fine for as much as $250,000.