Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives

Bangor, Maine:  United States Attorney Thomas E. Delahanty II announced that Lauren MacArthur, 29, of Bangor, was sentenced today in U.S. District Court in Bangor to 18 years in prison and five years of supervised release for possessing stolen firearms.  Because the defendant possessed the firearms after having been convicted of at least three violent felonies, he was sentenced as an Armed Career Criminal under federal law and faced a mandatory minimum prison term of 15 years.  He pleaded guilty to a two-count indictment on November 26, 2012.

Court records reveal that on the evening of January 20, 2012, a Maine State Police trooper was traveling southbound on I-95 in Old Town.  He drove up behind a grey sedan and noticed that the license plate was covered with dirt and difficult to read.  When the trooper activated his emergency lights, the defendant accelerated away at a high rate of speed, passing several vehicles.  The trooper activated his siren and a prolonged chase followed during which the defendant drove at speeds of up to 90 miles per hour, ran red traffic lights, and crossed intersections at high rates of speed.  At one point, the defendant crossed over an oncoming lane of traffic and drove into a bridge guardrail.  The vehicle returned to its proper travel lane and the chase continued for a short distance before the trooper was able to ram it off the road.  The defendant fled, but the trooper caught and arrested him.  Law enforcement officers recovered two loaded rifles that the defendant had thrown from the vehicle during the chase.  Their investigation showed that the defendant had stolen those firearms on the day of the chase from a home in Medway.

The investigation was conducted by the Maine State Police, the Penobscot County Sheriff’s Office, and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

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