Thursday, October 18, 2018
COLUMBUS (AP) — Sentencing is scheduled for a man who provided the gun used in a shooting that killed two Ohio police officers earlier this year.
Prosecutors want a five-year prison term for defendant Gerald Lawson, saying Lawson knew that Quentin Smith, his lifelong friend, had a violent past that prohibited him from buying or owning a gun.
The 31-year-old Lawson is scheduled for sentencing today before Columbus federal judge Edmund Sargus.
Defense attorneys want six months of house arrest, followed by three years of probation.
Westerville officers Anthony Morelli and Eric Joering were shot Feb. 11 responding to a 911 hang-up call at a town home in the Columbus suburb where Smith lived.
Smith was indicted in March on charges that carry the possibility of a death sentence. He has pleaded not guilty.