DEFENDANTS SENTENCED IN ILLEGAL GUN STRAW PURCHASE CONSPIRACY
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Assistant Attorney General Christopher A. Wray of
the Criminal Division announced today that an Indianapolis resident has been
sentenced to 63 months in prison for his role in a conspiracy to purchase
firearms for prohibited persons.
Dion L. Baugh, a/k/a Daneta Massey, was sentenced this afternoon by Judge
Sarah Evans Barker of the U.S. District Court in the Southern District of
Indiana, on charges of illegal possession of a firearm as a felon, conspiracy
to make false statements in connection with the acquisition of firearms,
aiding and abetting a false statement, and possession with intent to
distribute a controlled substance. Baugh pleaded guilty to the charges in
September 2003.
Baughs sentencing comes one day after another defendant in the straw purchase
conspiracy case, Cecelia D. Land of Indianapolis, was sentenced to three years
probation, which includes five months of home detention with electronic
monitoring, on a guilty plea to a charge of conspiracy to commit false
statements in connection with the acquisition of firearms. The third defendant
charged in an April 2003 indictment, Juan C. Johnson of Indianapolis, also
pleaded guilty at federal court in Indianapolis yesterday to a charge of
aiding and abetting a false statement in acquisition of firearms. Johnson was
sentenced to 51 months in prison.
In their plea agreements, the defendants admitted conspiring from about July
12, 2000 until at least Oct. 16, 2000, to make false statements to licensed
firearms dealers. The defendants admitted that Land and another individual
represented in these statements that they were the actual buyers of the
firearms, when in fact they were purchased for Baugh and Johnson, who are
barred as convicted felons from owning or possessing firearms. As part of the
conspiracy, Land purchased a total of 33 firearms from licensed firearm
dealers on 10 different occasions at the request of Johnson and Baugh.
Although Land certified on federal firearm forms that she was the actual buyer
of the firearms, she then delivered them to Johnson and Baugh, both convicted
felons.
This case of lying and buying illustrates one of the key aspects of our
efforts to prevent dangerous felons from acquiring firearms, said Assistant
Attorney General Christopher A. Wray of the Criminal Division. We will not
tolerate guns in their hands, and we will doggedly pursue those who put them
there.
The convictions were the result of an investigation by the Bureau of Alcohol,
Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, working with the FBI, the Indianapolis Metro
Drug Task Force, the Indianapolis Police Department, and the Marion County
Sheriffs Office. The case was prosecuted by trial attorneys Jerry Massie and
Nancy Oliver from the Domestic Security Section of the U.S. Department of
Justice, Criminal Division.
Since 2001, Attorney General John Ashcroft has directed U.S. Attorneys to
target individuals who lie in order to obtain a firearm they could not legally
purchase, as well as straw purchasers. In the past three years, federal gun
crime prosecutions have increased by 68 percent. During Fiscal Year 2003,
Project Safe Neighborhoods set a new Justice Department record with nearly 23
percent more defendants charged with gun crimes in one year.
In a separate case last month, the Attorney General announced an indictment
alleging the illegal transfer of firearms from Ohio to street gang members in
East Orange, New Jersey. Hundreds of firearms were allegedly purchased through
straw purchasers who lied on the required background check form.
