Man sentenced for gun violation Pa. resident given probation

BANGOR – A Pennsylvania man was sentenced Thursday in U.S. District Court to two years’ probation on a federal gun violation.

Tyler Ray Kinney, 32, of Mechanicsville, Pa., pleaded guilty in May 2003 to one count of possessing a firearm after a misdemeanor conviction for domestic assault.

Kinney was convicted in 2nd District Court in Presque Isle in February 1997 of assaulting his then-wife.

After the couple separated in 2002, Kinney called his estranged wife about picking up a rifle. She called the Bangor police and the charges followed.

Now remarried, Kinney works as a long-haul trucker and pays child support for the three children from his first marriage.

U.S. District Judge John Woodcock said Thursday that he sentenced Kinney to probation rather than jail so he could continue to work and pay child support. The judge also did not impose a fine.

Kinney faced up to six months in prison under the federal sentencing guidelines.

In an unrelated case, a Unity man was sentenced Wednesday in federal court in Portland on gun charges, the U.S. Attorney’s Office announced Thursday.

Robert Harris, 37, was sentenced to 10 months in prison for stealing firearms from a licensed dealer and possession of stolen firearms. He also was sentenced to three years of probation and ordered to pay more than $7,000 in restitution.

Harris and a co-defendant, who is awaiting sentencing, stole six handguns a year ago when the pair broke into Reid’s Guns & Supplies Inc. in Auburn, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.