MIAMI \u2013 A federal jury in Miami convicted a man on Oct. 2 of kidnapping and multiple firearm offenses stemming from a violent home invasion.<\/p>\n
According to court documents and evidence presented at trial, on July 11, 2023, at approximately 6 a.m., Alphonso Gainer, 37, of North Miami, broke into the victim\u2019s North Miami residence and opened fire inside the home, nearly killing the victim.\u00a0A 911 call placed by the victim captured the sound of Gainer firing three additional rounds as the victim sought cover.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThis victim endured unimaginable fear and terror in his own home,\u201d said U.S. Attorney Jason A. Reding Qui\u00f1ones for the Southern District of Florida. \u201cThanks to the courage of the victim and the swift work of law enforcement, justice was delivered. We will never relent in pursuing those who use guns to threaten, harm, or intimidate others.\u201d<\/p>\n
Responding officers arrived within minutes, but Gainer fled before law enforcement could locate him.\u00a0 Hours later, after officers had completed their initial investigation and left the scene, Gainer returned to the residence, kidnapped the victim at gunpoint, and forced the victim into his rental vehicle.\u00a0The victim managed to escape unharmed but photographed the vehicle\u2019s license plate, which law enforcement traced back to Gainer.\u00a0Ballistics evidence introduced at trial linked a firearm recovered from Gainer\u2019s residence to shell casings found at the scene of the shooting.<\/p>\n
The jury convicted Gainer of one count of kidnapping and three counts of being a felon in possession of a firearm or ammunition. Gainer faces a maximum sentence of life in prison for the kidnapping count and up to 15 years in prison for each of the three firearm possession counts. A federal district court judge will determine any sentence after considering the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.<\/p>\n
U.S. Attorney Reding A. Qui\u00f1ones and Special Agent in Charge Jason Stankiewicz of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), Miami Field Division, made the announcement.<\/p>\n
ATF Miami Field Office is investigating the case, with substantial assistance from the Miami-Dade Sheriff\u2019s Office.<\/p>\n
Assistant U.S. Attorneys Michael C. Mikulic and Altanese P. Phenelus are prosecuting the case.<\/p>\n
This case is part of\u00a0Operation Take Back America<\/a>\u00a0a nationwide initiative that marshals the full resources of the Department of Justice to repel the invasion of illegal immigration, achieve the total elimination of cartels and transnational criminal organizations (TCOs), and protect our communities from the perpetrators of violent crime.<\/p>\n Related court documents and information may be found on the website of the District Court for the Southern District of Florida at\u00a0www.flsd.uscourts.gov<\/a>\u00a0or at\u00a0http:\/\/pacer.flsd.uscourts.gov<\/a>, under case number 25-cr-20226.<\/p>\n ###<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MIAMI \u2013 A federal jury in Miami convicted a man on Oct. 2 of kidnapping and multiple firearm…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":44166,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[225,227,226],"class_list":{"0":"post-73023","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-hialeah","8":"tag-hialeah","9":"tag-hialeah-headlines","10":"tag-hialeah-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73023","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=73023"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73023\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/44166"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=73023"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=73023"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=73023"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}