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Man gets 10 years in gun shop break in
By Joe Gorman
YOUNGSTOWN
Brett McFarland shook his head and shuffled his manacled feet as a Mahoning County Common Pleas Court judge sentenced him to 101/2 years in prison Wednesday for the break in of a Market Street gun shop in 2012.
Moments earlier, the 21-year-old McFarland had told Judge John Durkin he did not know his two accomplices had planned to break into AAA Customs and that he did not want to serve the 111/2-year sentence recommended by prosecutors.
“I just don’t want to go for 11 years,” McFarland said. “I know you’ve probably heard this a million times before, but I’m sorry.”
McFarland and two others who were juveniles at the time were arrested for the break- in at the shop, 2500 Market St., on Sept. 23, 2012. About three dozen high-powered weapons were taken, police said. Police said two men broke in through the roof and a third, who was McFarland, waited in a car.
McFarland was not arrested until December 2012 and has been in jail since his arrest. He was charged with a single count of breaking and entering and 33 counts of grand theft.
Assistant Prosecutor Dawn Cantalamessa told Judge Durkin 13 of the guns have yet to be recovered.
Paul Groves, the owner of the gun shop, said the recommended sentence was not enough. He told Judge Durkin the process for selling the weapons is so strict that it often takes a year for someone to legally purchase a weapon. He said he takes all measures possible to ensure the guns do not fall into the wrong hands, which he said happened after the break in.
“These weapons were given to people who are criminals,” Groves said. “I think 111/2 years is a pretty light sentence.”
Defense attorney Tom Zena argued for a lighter sentence. He said the grand-theft charges are enhanced because Groves is a federally licensed firearms dealer and in other typical grand-theft cases there is no enhancement. He also said that McFarland’s two accomplices were given sentences in juvenile court and already are done serving them, which makes the sentence for McFarland, who only waited outside, unfair.
Zena also said McFarland’s crime was not a violent one, and there are no violent crimes in his juvenile record. He also said there is no evidence anywhere that the guns were to be given to certain people.
However, Judge Durkin said in the pre-sentence investigation, it shows that McFarland had three juvenile charges of receiving stolen property, from 2008 to 2010.
“There was a pattern for you,” Judge Durkin said.
McFarland said he accepted responsibility.
“This wasn’t my idea but I did go along with it, so I take full responsibility for it.”