A Mercer County man will spend several years in prison for buying guns at a Pennsylvania business just across the Delaware River from New Jersey and illegally distributing them to others from Philadelphia to Trenton.

A perpetrator used one of the guns in an April 2024 shooting in which a victim was shot 10 times and survived.

A Bucks County, Pennsylvania, judge sentenced Christopher Demond Lee Jr., 30, of Ewing, to 10 to 20 years in prison this past Friday, the Bucks County District Attorney’s Office announced.

He pleaded guilty in September to multiple felonies, including dealing in proceeds of unlawful activity, making materially false written statements in connection with the purchase of firearms, and criminal conspiracy, the district attorney’s office said.

The office said Lee was part of a “prolific” operation of “straw purchasing,” in which someone purchases a weapon for a person who does not qualify.

From January to July 2024, Lee bought nine guns at a Morrisville, Pennsylvania, store using an illegally obtained Pennsylvania driver’s license and a fake Bucks County address. Investigators seized his communications, during which he offered to buy guns for customers for cash.

Lee also had no prior criminal record, which the judge discussed at his sentencing.

“You had a clean slate,” Judge Jeffrey L. Finley told him, according to the district attorney’s office. “If we were to sell a gun to someone inquiring illegally, the odds are pretty dang good they will be used for criminal conduct.”

Police found another of Lee’s guns in June 2024 inside a juvenile’s bedroom in Bucks County. Its serial number had been removed. And in August 2024, Philadelphia police recovered one of the guns during a drug arrest.

Lee’s attorney, Keith Bidlingmaier, said Lee was working full-time and attending school to be an HVAC tech prior to his arrest.

“Chris Lee took responsibility for his actions as evidenced by his plea and remorse at the time of sentencing,” Bidlingmaier said. “Thankfully, he has a strong support system that has stood behind him and will continue to stand by him during his sentence. Chris will use his time while incarcerated to better himself.”

Bucks County Strike Force Det. Jeffrey Jumper investigated Lee along with the Pennsylvania Attorney General’s Gun Violence Task Force.