PORTLAND – A Hancock County man pleaded guilty Wednesday to charges that he forced a Gorham teenager into the trunk of the teen’s BMW at gunpoint and dropped him off in Delaware before driving the car to Texas.

Travis Landry, 29, of Surry pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court in Portland to charges of kidnapping and using a firearm in relation to a crime of violence, both punishable by life in prison.

Landry has been in custody since his arrest on May 7 after a high-speed chase in North Carolina.

Landry was accused of kidnapping 19-year-old Alexander Filatov at gunpoint April 24 after Filatov advertised his 2004 BMW sedan for sale on Craigslist.

Filatov thought he was meeting a man who had expressed interest in buying it, according to an affidavit filed by FBI agent Patrick Clancy.

Clancy’s account starts when Filatov met Landry at a motel on Riverside Street in Portland and ends with Landry’s arrest less than two weeks later.

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.

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 his shirt, showing a .45-caliber Glock handgun tucked into his waistband, the affidavit said.

“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 personal identification number for his debit card. Filatov complied.

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 Filatov eventually found an open Dunkin’ Donuts in Newark, Del., where he called police. Landry took Filatov’s cellphone and the car.

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

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

Landry stayed with her until April 30, when the teacher discovered 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 in a gray BMW in Killeen.

Landry’s wife called Rick Landry on May 7 and told him she had just been talking with her 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 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.

Staff Writer Scott Dolan can be contacted at 791-6304 or at:

sdolan@mainetoday.com