The FBI believes longtime city employee Raymond Gomes Jr. supplied one of the weapons used in the organized crime murders of two men at Pali Golf Course in 2004, according to a federal prosecutor.

Gomes, who has worked at the city's refuse division for 26 years, was sentenced yesterday to nearly five years in prison after pleading guilty to racketeering conspiracy and gambling charges.

Although his guilty plea was entered in February 2008, Gomes has continued on the city's payroll and said in court that he is in line for a promotion to a supervisory position.

After U.S. District Judge Susan Mollway sentenced him to 58 months behind bars, Gomes said he will lose his city job because he will be absent from it for more than 12 months.

He asked Mollway to send him to a prison where he can learn a new trade, suggesting the correctional facility at Lompoc, Calif.

"Lompoc has a meat-cutter school" for inmates, Gomes told Mollway.

Gomes had been asking for a prison sentence below the normal term of 50 to 60 months because he claimed to have cooperated with authorities investigating illegal gambling activities in Hawai'i.

But Assistant U.S. Attorney Thomas Brady said Gomes "was much more involved than he was willing to admit" in underworld activities.

Evidence indicated that Gomes supplied the .22-caliber handgun, equipped with a silencer, that co-defendant Ethan "Malu" Motta used to kill one man and critically wound another, Brady said.

Motta, Rodney Joseph Jr. and Kevin "Pancho" Gonsalves were convicted of murdering Lepo Utu Taliese and Romilius Corpuz Jr. at the Pali Golf Course parking lot in January 2004 in a dispute over protection money paid by illegal gambling games in Hawai'i.

A third man, Tinoimalo Sao, was shot in the face by Motta but survived.

"The bullet in Tino Sao's head came from this man," Brady said of Gomes.

Gomes could have been charged "as an aider and abettor of murder," Brady said, but the gun was never recovered and some of the evidence against Gomes was developed after he pleaded guilty in 2008.

Gomes did testify for the government in a related racketeering case against Robert Kaialau, but he was not called to testify against Motta or Joseph because of his refusal to tell all that he knew about them, Brady said.

Brady asked for a sentence of 63 months in prison.

Mollway told Gomes that although he "was not a direct participant in the double murder," he was "very close to the prime actors."

"You were in a position to know many, many things that you didn't tell the government about," she said.

"You were involved in extremely serious crimes" that deserve "a serious sentence," the judge said.

She took into account Gomes' long record of service to the city and his support of a large and growing immediate family.

City spokesman Bill Brennan confirmed yesterday that Gomes is a refuse collection equipment operator at the Wai'anae yard and is scheduled to be interviewed Tuesday for a promotion to supervisor at the Honolulu yard.

Brennan could not say specifically why Gomes has continued to work despite pleading guilty to federal felonies. Other public employees accused of felonies have been allowed to stay on the payroll while their cases were pending and if the crimes were unrelated to their jobs.

Brennan said now that Gomes has been sentenced, he will be subject to termination but will be "given a chance to resign."

Gomes recently underwent back surgery to repair five herniated cervical disks and is now receiving rehabilitation therapy, he told Mollway.

The judge allowed him to "self-surrender" to prison officials on Aug. 20.