PORTLAND — A Turner woman admitted Monday to charges stemming from her purchase of 55 guns for others, including guns allegedly connected to people in a Los Angeles street gang.
Jennifer Scruggs, 36, pleaded guilty to a charge of conspiracy to violate federal firearms laws, a felony punishable by up to five years in prison.
She also pleaded guilty to 10 counts of making a false statement during acquisition of a firearm from a licensed firearm dealer. Each felony count is punishable by up to 10 years in prison.
Scruggs waived her right to have the charges presented to a grand jury for indictment, a process that must be followed before she could be brought to trial unless she were to waive her right to that process.
She entered into an agreement with prosecutors to plead guilty to the charges resulting in convictions which she may not appeal. Prosecutors also agreed that she may appeal any sentence of more than five years in prison.
Scruggs was arrested in April 2023 and later released on an unsecured bond for confinement at a drug recovery center. Since completion of that program, she has been free on bond with no violations, prosecutors said.
She appeared in a federal courtroom Monday where she waived her arraignment on the charges and entered guilty pleas. Standing before U.S. District Court Judge Nancy Torresen, Scruggs wiped away tears as she admitted to the crimes.
Investigators said that over a five-month period, ending in July 2022, Scruggs bought 55 guns from three different federally licensed gun dealers in Maine.
Court documents show Scruggs bought the guns from dealers in Auburn, Turner and Whitefield.
On the forms she signed during purchase, Scruggs had checked a box indicating she was buying the guns for herself and not for someone else.
In an August interview with federal agents, Scruggs said she used cocaine and crack regularly.
Prosecutors said Scruggs and her then-boyfriend had started buying crack cocaine in early 2022 from two men in Lewiston who were from California and who were both prohibited from buying firearms and had claimed to be members of a Los Angeles gang.
The two men proposed that Scruggs buy guns for them in return for a combination of cash and crack cocaine. She agreed and began visiting gun shows and gun stores to purchase the guns identified through photos sent to Scruggs by the men, according to prosecutors.
On Aug. 30, 2022, the Los Angeles Police Department recovered one of the 55 guns Scruggs had bought when responding to a negligent discharge complaint in Van Nuys, California, according to court documents.
The suspect had fired the gun in the air “multiple times, reportedly yelling. ‘Crips.’” A notorious Los Angeles-based street gang is known as the “Crips.”
That gun had been bought by Scruggs at an Auburn gun shop in May, according to prosecutors.
In October, during a third interview with Scruggs, she told an agent she had bought the guns for two people who took the guns to California. They had told her which guns to buy “and that they were outfitting a gang in California, but she was not allowed to meet any of the gang members.”
Agents searched Scruggs’ Facebook messenger account where they found several exchanges, including photos of specific guns, with the two buyers directing her which guns to buy.
In February 2023, the Los Angeles Police Department arrested someone for an armed robbery. LA police recovered a Glock 9 mm pistol that had been used in that robbery. It was later discovered to have been one of the guns Scruggs had bought at a Turner gun shop in June 2022.
No sentencing date has been set.
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