Almost two years after being charged with the unlawful possession of a semi-automatic rifle, a man was yesterday found guilty of the crime and sentenced to two years in jail.
David Nelson, of Lot 199 B Church Street, South Cummings-burg, was sentenced by Magistrate Dylon Bess in Georgetown after being found guilty of having an unlicensed AR-15 style rifle in his possession without being the holder of a firearm licence at Georgetown on November 9th, 2017.
When Nelson was charged before Senior Magistrate Leron Daly in November of 2017, it was brought up in court by the prosecutor at the time that the man did indeed have a firearm licence, just not one for the firearm he was caught with.
Nelson was reported to have been the driver of the vehicle in which he and another person were travelling along Quamina Street, where the police, based on information they had received, stopped them and searched the vehicle.
His attorney, Adrian Thompson, had told the court that his client owned another weapon and had a firearm licence for it and that the one the police found him with did not belong to him.
Nelson was found guilty of the offence after the magistrate found that the prosecutor provided enough evidence to prove that he was in fact the owner of the unlicensed firearm. In addition to sentencing him to two years in prison, Magistrate Bess fined him $15,000 for the offence.
