Dominican found with armour piercing assault weapon gets 4½ yrs
Moises Olvalles Almonte was sentenced to four years for being in possession of a prohibited weapon and six months for being in possession of ammunition and explosives.
For the offence of overstaying his time in the territory, Almonte has to pay a fine of $1,000 which has to be paid by August 30, 2015. The custodial sentences will run consecutively.
Two others, Alberto Ovalles and Francisco Ovalles, had their charges dropped on July 2, 2015 and a third man has to return to court on November 10, 2015 at Prospect Reef for evaluation.
Moises Olvalles Almonte’s lawyer, attorney at law Leroy Jones, said his client has no previous convictions and thus he begged for leniency from the court.
According to the lawyer, the man was given a box to dispose of but instead of doing so, thought it best to take it home and see what it contained.
“The weapon is only in his possession because a box was given to him for him to throw into the garbage and he being a handy person with anything given to him, he took it home and opened it and found the rifle,” said the lawyer.
“He took the rifle out, leaned it against the wall and paid no further attention to it,” he said. According to the lawyer, his client kept the weapon a day or two with the intention of taking it to the police or throwing it away.
“But he never got the chance to do so and for that he is very sorry. He pleaded guilty to the gun and ammunition find and he told the police that he did find the weapon but he did not get the opportunity to explain where he found it,” said the attorney for the defendant.
Armour piercing capabilities
Earlier in the trial, police officer Darville Carter testified as having tested the Mossberg weapon and came to the determination that it was in a working condition, even though it had been exposed and had signs of rust. He testified that all of the moving parts required for it to be able to fire were working well and moving freely.
However, he was unable to actually test fire the weapon because of the type of ammunition it required, which was not stocked in the Police armoury. He was still, however, able to make a determination of the potency of the weapon based on his functional tests carried out on it.
Carter testified that the Mossberg assault rifle, which was exhibited in court, used warheads capable of penetrating most armoured protection and hence it being prohibited. He noted too that the weapon’s serial number had been obliterated.
At one stage, Jones questioned the propriety of the test results in the context of the gun not actually being test fired. However, he later accepted that the officer assigned to the weapon’s testing was competent to make conclusions about it due to his certification.
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13 Responses to “Dominican found with armour piercing assault weapon gets 4½ yrs”
If this part of a gun smuggling baND or some drug gang there should be a more serious investigation. You can just find an assault weapon an imprison a single guy.
#confused
Sources; military background