PORTLAND — A Canton woman who bought guns for someone else in exchange for drugs was sentenced Monday to probation.
Kaitlynn Buck, 24, pleaded guilty in May to two felony counts of making a false and fictitious statement during the acquisition of a firearm from a licensed firearm dealer.
U.S. District Court Judge Nancy Torresen sentenced Buck to three years of supervised release.
Prosecutors said Buck bought two 9 mm Glock pistols Sept. 14, 2021, from a federally licensed firearm dealer in Gray.
That same day, she bought a .45-caliber Glock pistol and a 9 mm Glock pistol from a licensed gun dealer in Lisbon Falls, according to court records.
In each case, the forms given to her by the dealers asked: “Are you the actual transferee/buyer of the firearm(s) listed on this form … ?” The form goes on to state, in bold letters: “Warning: You are not the actual transferee/buyer if you are acquiring the firearm(s) on behalf of another person. If you are not the actual transferee/buyer, the licensee cannot transfer the firearm(s) to you,” according to court records.
At both stores, Buck answered that she was the actual buyer of the guns, according to court records.
In March, she met with federal agents and admitted that she had attempted to purchase the firearms on behalf of a man with money he had given her, prosecutors said.
Buck’s attorney, Robert Levine, wrote in court records that his client had made the gun purchases to support her drug habit.
At a party, she had met a drug dealer who sold Percocet. “The mention of drugs was enough to draw her interest,” Levine wrote.
The two “drank, smoked weed, and listened to music,” Levine wrote.
The man “spent the night in the spare bedroom and left the next day. The next time they met, (the man) asked Kaitlynn to perform a straw purchase of firearms for him. In return he offered her crack cocaine,” Levine wrote.
On Sept. 14, 2021, the man and his friend arranged to drive Buck to two separate gun shops to make straw purchases of four Glock pistols, Levine wrote.
The man she’d met at the party gave her “hits of crack before they left and two more in the car. She was under the influence by the time they arrived at the first gun shop,” Levine wrote.
The other man “accompanied her inside and handled the cash. Kaitlynn signed the ATF form, denying that the weapons were purchased for someone else. As soon as she got back to the house, (the man) gave her two eight balls of crack, in return for her assistance,” Levine wrote.
Buck was born in Rumford when her mother was 17 and her father was incarcerated, Levine wrote.
She grew up in Rumford, Dixfield and Farmington. In school in Farmington, “she had significant behavioral issues involving ‘flipping out’ on teachers, unable to control her anger,” Levine wrote.
Buck lived with her grandmother through her middle school years because her mother couldn’t control her, Levine wrote.
At age 16, Buck moved in with a boyfriend. They were together for three years.
After high school “she bounced around a lot, moving between her mom’s house and the houses of friends. By the time she was 21, she was homeless and couch surfing. Through her mom, she met (her new boyfriend,) who was also homeless, having been kicked out of his mother’s house. His mother was a bad drug addict. Like Kaitlynn, (this boyfriend) too had a drug problem. He used meth, while Kaitlyn used both powder and crack cocaine, as well as mushrooms and acid,” Levine wrote.
After making the gun buys, Buck and her boyfriend went to Tennessee, “in search of sobriety. (Her boyfriend’s) father, who lived in Tennessee, promised to pay for the tickets as long as they got jobs and paid him rent; which they did. Kaitlynn even paid him back for the cost of her ticket,” Levine wrote.
In March 2022, Buck talked to federal agents and fully cooperated, acknowledging her participation in the straw purchases and “expressed both remorse and regret,” Levine said.
She returned voluntarily to Maine after her indictment and stayed with friends, he wrote.
After her arraignment, Buck entered a sober house in Lewiston, where she spent three months, Levine wrote.
She moved back with her mother, got a job, participated in group therapy and ended her relationship with her boyfriend, Levine wrote.
“He was a constant source of stress, anxiety and temptation. They had used drugs together since she was 21,” Levine wrote.
Buck now works at a nursing home in South Portland.
“Kaitlynn has grown and evolved through therapy, hard work and abstinence from drugs,” he wrote.
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