PORTLAND – Charges were filed Wednesday against a man who police say kidnapped a Gorham man at gunpoint, stuffed him into the trunk of the victim’s BMW, then drove to Delaware and dropped the victim off before embarking on a road trip to Texas.

The criminal complaint against Travis R. Landry, 29, of Surry was filed in U.S. District Court in Portland.

Landry is charged with kidnapping, and using and carrying a firearm in relation to a crime of violence, according to court records.

Landry has not made his initial court appearance in Maine. He has been in the Granville County Detention Center in Oxford, N.C., since his arrest after a high-speed chase last week.

An affidavit filed by Patrick M. Clancy, a special agent with the FBI, details the circumstances leading to Landry’s arrest on May 7.

Clancy wrote that Alexander Filatov, 19, of Gorham left his home on the night of April 24 to show his 2004 BMW sedan to a person who had seen it advertised on Craigslist and expressed interest in buying it. Filatov ended up meeting Landry at a motel on Riverside Street in Portland.

The men took the car for a test drive through Westbrook before stopping at a parking lot on Larrabee Road, the affidavit says. Filatov gave Landry a bill of sale, which Landry signed.

According to Clancy, Landry then asked Filatov to open the trunk of the car and told him to get into it to see how he “fit.”

Filatov later told police that he thought Landry was joking until Landry lifted up his shirt, showing a .45-caliber Glock handgun tucked into his waistband.

“Fearing for his life because of the gun, Filatov climbed into the trunk of the car,” the affidavit says.

Landry drove off with Filatov trapped inside. At one point, Landry stopped and demanded that Filatov give him his wallet and the PIN for his debit card. Filatov complied.

Landry also cut off the emergency trunk release cable, ending any chance Filatov had at escaping.

“Filatov said he was scared to death, thinking that Landry planned to kill him,” the affidavit says.

After driving for about eight hours, Landry stopped in a secluded wooded area near a cemetery, according to the affidavit. He opened the trunk and told Filatov to get out and run.

Clancy said the victim eventually found an open Dunkin’ Donuts shop in Newark, Del., where he called police. Landry had taken Filatov’s cellphone.

Clancy wrote in his affidavit that a schoolteacher who had met Landry online wired him $400 during his trip west to Killeen, Texas.

The teacher told police that Landry arrived at her home on April 26 driving a gray BMW with Maine license plates.

Landry stayed with her until April 30, when the teacher found that he had taken her vacuum cleaner, an iPad, a Canon camera and her debit card, the affidavit says.

Landry’s father, Rick Landry, told authorities that he last saw his son with his estranged wife on May 6.

They were driving a gray BMW in Killeen.

Landry’s wife called Rick Landry on May 7 and told him she was talking with her estranged husband on the phone when he told her he had to hang up because he was being chased by police.

The affidavit says deputies in Granville County, N.C., stopped the gray BMW on May 7 for speeding and a window tint violation.

Landry then led police on a high-speed chase that ended with his arrest after the BMW hit several police cars.

Filatov could not be reached for comment Wednesday night.

 

Dennis Hoey can be contacted at 791-6365 or at:

dhoey@pressherald.com

 

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