Whitehall Man Sentenced for Unlawfully Possessing Firearms and Ammunition

ALBANY, NEW YORK - Shane Smith, age 24, of Whitehall, New York, was sentenced today to 41 months in prison and three years of supervised release for unlawfully possessing two short-barrel rifles, and unlawfully possessing hundreds of rounds of ammunition while being a felon. 

The announcement was made by United States Attorney Carla B. Freedman; Janeen DiGuiseppi, Special Agent in Charge of the Albany Field Office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), and John B. DeVito, Special Agent in Charge of the New York Field Division of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF).

As part of his previously entered guilty plea, Smith admitted that on September 16, 2016, he was convicted in the Northern District of New York of the felony offense of unlawfully possessing a machine gun.  He was released from prison in April 2018. 

Smith further admitted that on December 15, 2020, U.S. Probation Officers searched his Whitehall residence, and found two rifles whose barrels were each less than 16 inches in length, and hundreds of rounds of ammunition, all of which was illegal for Smith to possess. 

This case was investigated by the United States Probation Office for the Northern District of New York, FBI, and ATF, and was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Rick Belliss.