BY DAN HILDEBRAN
A 35-year-old Keystone Heights man was sentenced to three years in prison after deputies found a shotgun in the back floorboard of which he was a passenger, and officers determined the defendant was a convicted felon.
Devin Shane Griffis pleaded to the weapons charge on January 14. He was arrested on July 8, 2025, for the weapons felony and possession of marijuana, a misdemeanor. However, prosecutors did not charge him with the lesser offense.
According to an arrest report, Det. Franklin Ehrnreiter and Deputy Hayley Flynn were patrolling near the Keystone Heights Airport when they observed a red Toyota sedan traveling northbound on 100. A records check revealed the vehicle’s registered owner did not possess a valid driver’s license, prompting the officers to initiate a traffic stop.
While Flynn made contact with Griffis, who was riding as a passenger in the vehicle, she asked him to locate the vehicle’s insurance paperwork. When Griffis opened the center console, Flynn observed what appeared to be marijuana in a clear plastic bag.
Griffis was asked to exit the vehicle and was detained. During a subsequent search, deputies discovered a camouflage Mossberg shotgun on the floorboard of the back seat. The firearm was not reported stolen, according to a records check.
A background check revealed that Griffis is a convicted felon. He told deputies the shotgun belonged to a friend and that he had borrowed it to take his son duck hunting. Griffis also stated he had purchased the marijuana from a man known as “Draco” in Highridge Estates.
The 35-year-old was arrested and charged with possession of a firearm by a convicted felon and possession of not more than 20 grams of marijuana.
The defendant’s prior convictions include reckless driving, no valid driver’s license, felony driving with a suspended or revoked license, resisting an officer without violence, petit theft, culpable negligence resulting in injury, grand theft of a firearm, and grand theft.
