Washington, D.C. – Leon Waddy, a 22-year-old resident of the District of Columbia, has pled guilty to theft of firearms and possession of stolen firearms, U.S. Attorney Jeffrey A. Taylor, Special Agent in Charge Edgar Domenech, Bureau of Alchol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, and Metropolitan Police Department Chief Cathy L. Lanier, jointly announced today.

Waddy entered his guilty plea yesterday in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia before the Honorable Magistrate Judge John M. Facciola. Waddy will face statutory penalties of five (5) years for theft of firearms and ten (10) years for possession of stolen firearms when he is sentenced by the Honorable Ellen S. Huvelle on December 8, 2008. Under the federal sentencing guidelines, he faces a likely sentencing range of 30 - 37 months in prison.

Waddy was enrolled as a student at Winston Salem University in Winston Salem, North Carolina, prior to his arrest. According to the Statement of Offense, on June 13, 2008, at about 12:26 a.m., Waddy and Michael Henderson broke into the Green Top Sporting Goods store in Glen Allen, VA. Once inside, they stole 34 semi-automatic handguns. The theft was captured on a security video camera, and Waddy could be seen carrying a black bag and wearing a black hooded sweatshirt and camouflage pants. After the theft, the men traveled to Waddy’s apartment in Southeast Washington, D.C., where they divided the weapons between themselves. Waddy kept approximately 17 guns.

Members of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (“ATF”) investigated the burglary from Green Top Sporting Goods and arrested Michael Henderson after he sold a number of the stolen guns in Maryland. Leon Waddy was later identified as Henderson’s accomplice in the burglary.
On June 21, 2008, MPD officers and ATF agents executed a D.C. Superior Court search warrant at Waddy’s apartment in Washington, D.C. In Waddy’s bedroom, the officers recovered a S&W .45 caliber handgun with a tag and magazine, a Sig Sauer P232 handgun with a magazine, a black duffle bag containing a gun tag for a Walther PPK .380 caliber handgun, a pair of green camouflage pants, a black hooded sweatshirt, and Waddy’s college identification card. The two handguns in Waddy’s bedroom had been stolen from Green Top Sporting Goods, on June 13, 2008.

Waddy was arrested when he returned home. He later confessed that he and Henderson stole the firearms, and that he sold all but two of his handguns in the District of Columbia to three separate individuals whom he thought to be drug dealers, for a profit of approximately $2,400. Waddy also admitted that he was keeping for his own use the two handguns found in his bedroom.

Henderson recently appeared in the U.S. District Court in Greenbelt, MD, and pleaded guilty to stealing the firearms.

In announcing the guilty plea, U.S. Attorney Taylor, ATF Special Agent in Charge Domenech and MPD Chief Lanier praised the efforts of ATF Agent Harry Brady and MPD Detective Wayne Gerrish, who conducted the investigation, and Assistant U.S. Attorney Frederick Yette, who is prosecuting the case.