Federal jury convicts camden man
for illegal firearm possession
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE |
September 14, 2011 |
CAMDEN, N.J. – A Camden man was convicted today in federal court for illegal possession of a loaded handgun, U.S. Attorney Paul J. Fishman announced.
The jury returned a guilty verdict against Shawn Coleman, 36, following a three-day trial before U.S. District Judge Jerome B. Simandle in Camden. Coleman was convicted of the sole count of the Indictment against him: being a felon in possession of a firearm.
According to documents filed in this case and the evidence at trial:
On November 5, 2009, officers from the Lindenwold, N.J., Police Department responded to the Pine Ridge Apartments in Lindenwold in response to a citizen complaint. A parked car’s headlights were shining into the complainant’s apartment window from the parking lot.
Responding officers found a man who appeared to be sleeping in the driver’s seat of a running SUV with its headlights on. After entering the car to check on the health of the driver, officers found a loaded Sig Sauer Model P229 .40 caliber semi-automatic handgun with an obliterated serial number in an open center console of the SUV.
At sentencing, Coleman faces a maximum potential penalty of 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine. Sentencing is currently scheduled for January 6, 2012.
U.S. Attorney Fishman credited special agents of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, under the direction of Special Agent in Charge Matthew W. Horace in Newark; as well as the Camden County Prosecutor’s Office, under the direction of Prosecutor Warren W. Faulk, and the Lindenwold Police Department, under the direction of Chief Stanley R. Lemayski, for the investigation leading to the conviction.
The government is represented by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Matthew T. Smith and Alyson M. Oswald of the U.S. Attorney’s Office Criminal Division in Camden.
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Defense counsel: M.W. Pinsky Esq., Westmont, N.J.
