U.S. Attorney Halsey B. Frank announced that Michael L. Brewer, 62, of Boothbay Harbor, was sentenced Wednesday, May 2 in U.S. District Court by Judge Jon D. Levy to three years and 11 months in prison for being a felon in possession of a firearm.
According to court records, an attempted traffic stop of Brewer by the Lincoln County Sheriff’s Office on May 13, 2017 turned into a high-speed chase. The chase ended when Brewer crashed and rolled the truck he was driving on Butler Road in Boothbay. A search of the truck revealed that Brewer was in possession of a loaded handgun. It was also determined that Brewer had a blood-alcohol level of 0.308 grams per 100 milliliters of blood – almost four times the legal limit.
Brewer was not permitted to possess firearms because of several prior felony convictions, including attempted murder in 1989 and, most recently, burglary in 2015.
In pronouncing sentence, Levy noted that the “bone-chilling” high-speed pursuit, in combination with Brewer’s criminal history, which consisted of 39 prior convictions, required a lengthy sentence in this case.
The case was investigated by the Lincoln County Sheriff’s Office, the Boothbay Harbor Police Department, and the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives.
Brewer remains under indictment in Lincoln County on seven charges in connection with the same incident: one each of class C possession of a firearm by a prohibited person, class D criminal OUI, class D terrorizing, class E driving to endanger, class E failure to stop for an officer, class E operating beyond license condition or restriction, and class E violation of condition of release.
He also faces a charge of OUI from a separate incident and a motion to revoke his probation from the 2015 burglary, according to Assistant District Attorney Katie Dakers.
The next court date for the local cases is a dispositional conference at 8:30 a.m., Monday, May 14.
