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.<\/p>\n
A perpetrator used one of the guns in an April 2024 shooting in which a victim was shot 10 times and survived.<\/p>\n
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\u2019s Office announced.<\/p>\n
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\u2019s office said.<\/p>\n
The office said Lee was part of a \u201cprolific\u201d operation of \u201cstraw purchasing,\u201d in which someone purchases a weapon for a person who does not qualify.<\/p>\n
From January to July 2024, Lee bought nine guns at a Morrisville, Pennsylvania, store using an illegally obtained Pennsylvania driver\u2019s license and a fake Bucks County address. Investigators seized his communications, during which he offered to buy guns for customers for cash.<\/p>\n
Lee also had no prior criminal record, which the judge discussed at his sentencing.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou had a clean slate,\u201d Judge Jeffrey L. Finley told him, according to the district attorney\u2019s office. \u201cIf we were to sell a gun to someone inquiring illegally, the odds are pretty dang good they will be used for criminal conduct.\u201d<\/p>\n
Police found another of Lee\u2019s guns in June 2024 inside a juvenile\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n