PORTLAND, Maine — Don’t Snapchat your felonies.
That lesson could come with a federal court sentence of up to 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine for a Boston man who last week pleded guilty to illegally possessing a gun and ammunition.
In late May, Dane Mitchell, 25, was arrested after federal and Massachusetts law enforcement unearthed evidence that he had come up to Maine to go shooting, despite felony convictions that bar him from having a firearm.
The clue that brought the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and the Boston Police Department’s Youth Violence Strike Force down on Mitchell was a video posted on the social media network Snapchat, court records state.
It was posted by Mitchell.
On April 8, Mitchell sent out a Snapchat video from his screen name, “cheneybaby.” Boston police “surreptitiously located” the video, according to court documents.
It appeared to showed Mitchell and another man, Keon Shine, shooting two Glock pistols at Howell’s Indoor Range and Gun Shop in Gray, court records state.
After police found the Snapchat video, officers and a federal agent went to Howell’s and found waivers both men signed on the same day the video was posted, according to the court filings. The waivers stated, “I confirm that I am legally permitted to possess and use firearms.”
Mitchell was convicted on firearms charges last summer. Shine was convicted in 2011 on three counts of assault and battery and one count of receiving a stolen vehicle, according to court records.
This was one of several times that Boston police found Snapchat videos of Mitchell shooting, the court records state. For instance, on April 17, Mitchell posted a photo of what a federal agent described as a “long gun [with] a forward pistol grip and what appears to be a flashlight mounted on the barrell.”
Mitchell initially pleaded not guilty to the firearm charges but changed his plea Wednesday. Shine pleaded not guilty and is scheduled for a trial later this year.
The public defender representing Mitchell did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Nor did Shine’s lawyer.