A San Diego felon, 44-year-old Jarez Roberts, was caught repeatedly purchasing handguns from an Arizona resident was sentenced today to nine years in federal prison.
Roberts was already prohibited from purchasing firearms, but traveled to Arizona on multiple occasions to buy guns, which prosecutors say he armed himself with while selling methamphetamine.
The investigation led to both Roberts and his gun source, 38-year-old Phoenix resident Lillian Shingleton, after police found a loaded handgun inside a trash bin in the College Grove Area. The gun was tracked to a firearm sale from a Glendale, Arizona store.
Both Shingleton and Roberts pleaded guilty to various federal charges.
According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office in San Diego, the case was among several recent prosecutions involving guns illegally sold and transported across state lines from Arizona to San Diego.
In another case, San Diego resident Jacob Gall-Carrizosa bought 11 guns in Arizona using a fake ID to claim he was an Arizona resident, then resold the guns in San Diego, according to the Attorney’s Office.
One of those guns was later recovered by police in Tijuana, prosecutors said. Gall-Carrizosa pleaded guilty last month to transporting firearms without a federal license.
“Trafficking firearms across state lines creates a dangerous pipelinefor illegal weapons,” San Diego U.S. Attorney Tara McGrath said in a statement. “By bringing cases like these to justice, we are keeping guns out of the wrong hands.”
-City News Service
