DA: Case against alleged gang member won't be hurt by courthouse theft of gun held as evidence against him

The Herald reports a clerk magistrate at Chelsea District Court has been reassigned to another court as investigators try to figure out how three guns being held in a court evidence safe were stolen.

Two of the guns were from cases in which the trials had already ended, the Suffolk County District Attorney's office reports. The third, however, was being held as evidence against Sokhorn Sor, still awaiting trial in Suffolk Superior Court for illegal weapons possession.

The Herald says Sor's lawyer will move to have the case against her client thrown out. Channel 4 reports Sor is an alleged member of the Bloods gang in Revere.

Jake Wark, spokesman for the DA's office, says prosecutors still have a case even without the Sig Sauer P232:

We have photos of the weapon and testimony of police and criminalists who saw and tested it. Defense counsel already had a chance to cross-examine the officers in district court. We also have case law that we believe will allow us to go to trial and secure a conviction without the firearm, as we have in past cases with missing or destroyed evidence. That case law comes from a 2004 SJC decision in a Suffolk County murder case (Comm. v. Dinkins) in which the murder weapon was destroyed during the multi-year span between the time the gun was recovered and the time the shooter was identified).

Innocent, etc.