A Dresden man was sentenced Wednesday to 55 months in prison for illegal possession of a firearm by a felon.

Michael Burns, 34, was also sentenced by U.S. District Court Chief Judge Nancy Torresen to three years of supervised release.

Burns pleaded guilty to the charge in November. According to officials, he had borrowed a .22-caliber rifle from a neighbor and kept the rifle in his home. In August 2016, Burns got into an argument with his live-in girlfriend and tried to strangle her while her child watched. Burns then grabbed the rifle, loaded it and threatened to “blow his head off” in front of his girlfriend and her child.

Burns was prohibited from possessing the firearm because he had prior felony convictions in Maine for illegally possessing firearms, theft and aggravated assault. At the time of the offense, Burns was on probation for a domestic violence-related aggravated assault on a former girlfriend.