BURLINGTON, Vt. — A Hardwick man who prosecutors said traded cocaine base for a gun was sentenced Thursday to 21 months in federal prison, the U.S. attorney's office for the District of Vermont said.

U.S. District Judge William K. Sessions III sentenced Hunter Patten, 27, and ordered three years of supervised release after the prison term. Patten pleaded guilty Nov. 3, 2025, to illegally having a gun while using and being addicted to drugs.

According to court records cited by prosecutors, Patten got the gun in exchange for cocaine base on Oct. 15, 2023. Prosecutors said that was after Patten heard Theodore Bland commit a double homicide over drugs in Lowell, Vermont.

After his guilty plea, Patten was released Jan. 27 to await sentencing, prosecutors said. The conditions of his release barred him from having guns or drugs and from breaking state or federal law.

On Aug. 18, Hardwick police went to Patten's home and found him with what prosecutors described as an apparently self-inflicted gunshot wound to his leg, according to the U.S. attorney's office. Officers also found a short-barreled shotgun hidden in a nearby clothes dryer. Prosecutors said police found thousands of dollars' worth of cocaine base and fentanyl in both his kitchen and his bedroom.

Prosecutors said Patten was immediately detained for violating his release conditions.

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