Man gets 18 months for border violations

BANGOR – A Canadian man has been sentenced to 18 months in federal prison for entering the country illegally and lying to a U.S. Border Protection officer.

Dean Raymond Carter, 36, of Newfoundland also was sentenced Tuesday in U.S. District Court to three years of supervised release. He is expected to be deported after serving his sentence.

Carter was arrested in November when he and his American wife tried to enter Maine at the Calais border crossing. He told border agents that he did not have a criminal record when he had been convicted of fraud in Florida.

He was held without bail pending the outcome of his case. That time will be credited to his sentence.

Following a bench trial in March, U.S. District Judge John Woodcock found Carter guilty of making false statements and attempted illegal reentry after having been removed from the country.

Carter was removed in October 2005 in Buffalo, N.Y., after falsely claiming to be a U.S. citizen, according to court documents. The previous July he was refused entry at the Lewiston, N.Y., border crossing for the same reason.

Carter faced up to two years in prison and fines of up to $250,000 on each count. Under the federal sentencing guidelines, his recommended sentence was 18 to 24 months in prison.

If Carter had pleaded guilty to the charges, he would have faced between eight and 14 months in prison under the guidelines.

He received a longer sentence than someone who had never committed a crime, in part, because one of his convictions in Florida was a felony and because the judge found he had obstructed justice and lied when he testified at his trial, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.