A former Halawa Correctional Facility prison guard will spend the next three years on federal probation for possessing a device that can convert certain semiautomatic rifles into fully automatic machine guns.

Under federal advisory sentencing guidelines, Ronald Philip Lee Jr. was facing 12 to 18 months in prison.

But U.S. District Judge David Ezra said yesterday, “;I see no benefit to society to further incarcerate Mr. Lee.”;

Lee spent five days in custody following his arrest in April 2007.

For the first four months of probation, Lee will be on home detention. And he must perform 150 hours of community service for each year he is on probation.

“;This will never happen again,”; Lee told Ezra.

If it does, Lee could find himself in prison.

As a convicted felon, Lee cannot possess or be in the presence of firearms.

That could be the harshest penalty for him because firearms were a big part of his life.

He was the armorer at Halawa, responsible for instructing new adult correctional officers in the proper use of firearms. Many of his friends are gun collectors, and he conducted an annual shooting event.

Lee retired last year after 22 years as a state adult correctional officer because he knew he was going to be fired following his sentencing, said his lawyer, William Domingo.

He and another Halawa guard, Patrick H. Sonsona, pleaded guilty in July to possessing an auto connector, also called a lightning link. Lee said he ordered the part at Sonsona's request.

Sonsona, a 15-year veteran of the state Department of Public Safety, will be sentenced next month.