NASHUA – Nashua native Peter Gibbs was sentenced Wednesday to spend at least 21 years in prison for the 2008 home invasion robbery of an elderly city man.

You could say Gibbs is going home, except that he was already there, serving 3½ to seven years on a conviction for a brief escape from custody.

Though he was born in Nashua, Gibbs, 45, was essentially raised by the New Hampshire Department of Corrections, his lawyer, Bruce Kenna, told Hillsborough County Superior Court Judge Diane Nicolosi. Gibbs began doing time in the Youth Detention Center when he was 7 years old, and he’s spent more time behind bars than out.

Gibbs has a lengthy record of violent crimes committed during those brief periods when he has been free. The last time, back in 2007 and 2008, Gibbs was accused of committing two armed home invasions.

Gibbs was charged, along with an accomplice, of robbing an elderly Nashua man in his home on Christmas Eve 2007, but the victim died before the case could be tried, and prosecutors were forced to drop the charges.

Last year, Gibbs was tried and convicted of a second home invasion and robbery, in which he and another man posed as police to rob a now 83-year-old Nashua man at gunpoint on the night of March 16, 2008, tying him up while they ransacked his house and stole coins, gold-leaf baseball cards and other valuables.

Gibbs was arrested in Maine the next day, where he was found with a van that had been stolen from his neighborhood hours before the robbery. Police also found coins and gold baseball cards. Gibbs allegedly confessed to a fellow inmate in the York County jail that he robbed an elderly man in Nashua.

Gibb’s accomplice, Paul Sanguedolce, of Sanford, Maine, pleaded guilty to a burglary charge and was sentenced in January to three to eight years in prison.

Assistant County Attorney Catherine Devine argued that Sanguedolce’s record, though extensive, was not nearly so violent as Gibbs’, and the evidence against him weaker.

Kenna argued the difference between the two men’s sentences was fundamentally unjust, though Gibbs faced a mandatory minimum of 10 to 20 years on his armed career criminal conviction. Gibbs was also convicted of burglary, robbery and criminal restraint.

Kenna argued Gibbs has never received any counseling or treatment in prison, despite diagnoses including attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, bipolar disorder and post-traumatic stress disorder.

Gibbs maintains his innocence in the home invasion, despite the evidence and his conviction. The victim appeared in court, but declined to speak about the case, for fear of retaliation, Devine said.

“I do feel remorse for what happened to you,” Gibbs told the man, “but I was not there that night. I did not do that to you.”

Gibb’s mother, sister, brother-in-law and eldest daughter all urged Nicolosi to be lenient, saying that Gibbs has been a loving family member, in and out of prison.

“Please let us not put the entire fault on his shoulders,” his mother, Bertina Gibbs, said. “Given the right opportunities and guidance, Peter can be a different person from the person the court knows.”

Devine argued for a total 20 to 40 years in prison, consecutive to Gibb’s current sentence, based on his prior record and the violence of the home invasion.

“I’ve been a prosecutor since 1987, and I’ve been dealing with Mr. Gibbs on a regular basis,” she said. “He is violent. He is a career criminal. I don’t think there’s any question about that, but he hit a new low in this particular crime,” targeting an elderly victim with extreme violence.

Devine noted that Gibbs has never once held a regular job, and argued “he has never … contributed to society in any positive way at all.”

Nicolosi appeared to sympathize with Gibb’s background, but she threw the book at him all the same, saying the crime and his record left leniency out of the question.

“I do respond in my heart to the fact that society has failed you,” Nicolosi said. For someone to grow up in the prison system, she said, “It is a travesty.”

Andrew Wolfe can be reached at 594-6410 or awolfe@nashuatelegraph.com.