Perry man sentenced for gun violations

BANGOR – A Perry man was sentenced this week in federal court to more than 15 years in prison on firearms violations that resulted in his being classified as an armed career criminal.

Travis Smith, 27, will serve 190 months in prison to be followed by five years of supervised release. He pleaded guilty earlier to being a felon in possession of a firearm. He remains jailed pending transfer to prison.

The “armed career criminal” designation is determined by a judge after a person has been convicted of a minimum of three violent felonies. In Smith’s case, he previously was convicted of gross sexual assault, terrorizing and criminal threatening with a dangerous weapon.

According to court documents, officers with the Maine Drug Enforcement Agency, the Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms and others found Smith in possession of numerous firearms on May 23, 2001. Those firearms included a Norinco SKS rifle that had been modified to operate as a machine gun.

Smith still faces a state-court sentencing in Washington County on a conviction of trafficking in scheduled drugs, specifically illegal prescription drugs. The firearms sentencing took place at U.S. District Court in Bangor. U.S. District Judge George Z. Singal presided.

Also sentenced Thursday was Alton Danforth, 48, of Springfield who received 19 months in prison on a conviction of harvesting marijuana for the purpose of distributing it to others. After his prison term, Danforth was ordered to complete five years of supervised release.

According to court documents, Danforth and others were engaged in harvesting marijuana in the fall of 2001. MDEA agents executed a search warrant on Danforth’s residence on Sept. 17, 2001. The agents discovered a room on the second floor, which contained marijuana that was being processed and a large quantity of marijuana drying in another room. Marijuana also was found drying in the attic. Approximately 14.2 pounds of marijuana was recovered from the house. Danforth remains jailed pending transfer to prison.

One of Danforth’s colleagues, Rickie Scalia, 44, of Monmouth, was sentenced in April to 22 months in prison and ordered to pay a $4,000 fine. He earlier pleaded guilty to conspiracy to distribute and manufacture marijuana and possession with the intent to distribute marijuana.

Melissa Perry, 20, of New Brunswick was sentenced to 12 months and one day in prison after earlier pleading guilty to assisting in the illegal importation of 100 Dilaudid pills into the United States on two separate occasions. According to court documents, Perry assisted her boyfriend, Anthony David, in the activity.

The pills then were sold illegally in the United States. David is convicted of the illegal importation of Dilaudid. On Feb. 20, he was found to have 33 pills in his rectum, according to court documents. He is scheduled to be sentenced July 24.