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Man caught in Boston-area gang sweep gets 30 months for selling gun to informant in East Boston
By adamg on Fri, 09/15/2017 - 10:13am
James Warner, 30, received the sentence yesterday after pleading guilty to engaging in the business of dealing in firearms without a license and being a felon in possession of a firearm, the US Attorney's office reports.
Warner, who is prohibited from buying, selling and using firearms due to a prior criminal conviction, conspired with other individuals to sell a Hungary, .380 caliber semi-automatic pistol and a Davis Industries, Model D-32 caliber derringer in the Orient Heights Housing Development in East Boston.
Warner was one of several dozen people indicted last year as part of a federal and local push against the 18th Street Gang - an MS-13 rival - the East Side Money Gang and the Boylston Street Gang.
Warner's sentence, by US District Court Judge Nathaniel Gorton, was six months more than federal attorneys had asked for. He has already served roughly 16 months in federal custody.
In a sentencing memorandum, his lawyer also asked for a lower sentence, saying that while Warner acknowledges being caught on video selling the gun, he was never a gang member and simply got swept up with the actual gang members. Warner, a father of two whose brother has a job waiting for him at his plumbing business, made "a singular error in judgment" in selling a gun to somebody he thought simply wanted to protect himself - something Warner was familiar with, having grown up on the mean streets of Roxbury.
Defendant is NOT and has never been a “gang member.” He is a hard working man with limited education, trying to support a family.
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| Attachment | Size |
|---|---|
 Sentencing memorandum by Warner's attorney | 280.59 KB |
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Comments
Where's AG Healey?
IA.380 and a .32. A couple of palm-sized hand guns. They can kill and maim, but they aren't very dramatic like an "assault rifle" and nobody posed with them in front of the Confederate flag. Ho him. No headlines, no Healey, decrying this slap on the wrist.
30 months. This guy is pumping guns into the community and should have gotten a minimum of five years.
She wasn't involved
The state and local officials (why'd you ask about Healey and not Conley?) probably let the feds have this one (along with all the other indictments related to the sweep) because federal sentences are generally tougher.