Michael Papantonakis says he's in jail, awaiting trial on federal firearms-dealing charges, because of his big mouth and his big heart.
One led him to sell guns to help pay for his sister's cancer treatments, he said, and the other to lie about trading weapons to gang members and to spout off - more than once - about wanting to see a business associate "beaten up," perhaps by baseball bat.
In a recent 5-minute jailhouse interview at the Maryland Correctional Adjustment Center known as "Supermax," an alternately rueful and indignant Papantonakis told The Baltimore Sun that he never dealt arms "over the counter" from his family-owned Utz Potato Chip stall in Lexington Market, as a federal court complaint suggests. He does admit, though, to completing transactions there.
The allegations shocked the community. Papantonakis' family had run the chip stand since 1970, and Lexington Market has a lengthy history as a city icon. It is now perhaps better known for its blight, a place where drugs trade hands openly - and, now, where illegal guns are allegedly available to anyone, even gang members.
But Papantonakis, who has since moved to a jail in Salisbury, said he did not really sell weapons to Bloods, Crips or Hells Angels, as he'd once boastfully claimed, according to the complaint. He just told that to his two buyers - one of whom was an undercover agent with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives - to make them think there was competition.
And the recorded comments about having someone "take care" of the Lexington Market manager were just words spoken in anger, said Papantonakis, 53, because he was being denied an opportunity to expand to the adjacent food stall. The words, he said, were akin to a parent saying he's going to kill his unruly kid: You say it, but you don't actually do it.
He does admit to selling guns from his personal collection, which is legal without a license if it doesn't rise above the level of hobby - as prosecutors say his sales did.
If convicted, Papantonakis faces a maximum five-year prison sentence.
He said he's at risk of losing his home, his Utz store and his relationship. His 21-year-old girlfriend, Sharon Heberle, was arrested, too, and charged as his accomplice. Heberle is free pending trial; she did not return a call for comment.
