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Man gets over seven years on firearms charge
By Joe Gorman
YOUNGSTOWN
Archie Stanford Jr. told authorities in December 2014 he wanted to sell a gun he had so he could buy Christmas presents for his children.
The problem, however, is that he is barred from having any firearms, so a federal judge sentenced him Tuesday to a federal prison term.
Judge Donald Nugent of U.S. Northern District Court sentenced Stanford, 29, who court records list has an address on Maple Street, to 88 months in prison on a count of being a felon in possession of a firearm.
Stanford was indicted on the charge July 1 and pleaded guilty Oct. 20. He was accused of having a .22-caliber rifle and a magazine with 18 rounds of ammunition when he was stopped Dec. 24, 2014, by Youngstown police.
He has a trafficking-in-cocaine conviction from 2009 in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court, and a sentencing memorandum by Assistant U.S. Attorney Jason Katz said he also has trafficking-in-marijuana convictions in 2010 from the same court.
Because of those convictions, he is barred from having a firearm.
Stanford also has a pending cocaine-possession charge in common-pleas court, for which he was indicted July 9.
Katz’s memorandum said when Stanford was stopped by police he also had cocaine and heroin on him but he was not prosecuted federally for having those drugs in his possession.
Stanford’s attorney, federal public defender Edward Bryan, wrote in his sentencing memorandum that when a car Stanford was driving was pulled over by a Youngstown police officer, Stanford ran but left a rifle in the car a passenger said belonged to Stanford.
Bryan wrote Stanford later told authorities he planned to sell the weapon to get money so he could buy Christmas gifts for his children.
Bryan also wrote his client has learning disabilities and was diagnosed with lead poisoning and only got as far as 10th grade in school. He also abused heroin, Percocet and LSD.
The public defender said in his memorandum a sentence between three years and 46 months would be appropriate.