Trenton Man Sentenced to 84 Months in Prison for Possessing Ammunition in Connection with a Shooting

TRENTON, N.J. – A Mercer County man was sentenced to 84 months in prison for being a felon in possession of ammunition in connection with a Trenton shooting, U.S. Attorney Alina Habba announced.

Rashon Lawery, 27, of Trenton, previously pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge Georgette Castner in Trenton federal court to an Indictment charging him with unlawful possession of twenty-six rounds of 9-millimeter ammunition by a convicted felon.

According to documents filed in this case and statements made in court:

On May 23, 2022, members of the Trenton Police Department responded to a report of a shooting.  Three individuals were shot, sustaining non-life-threatening injuries, and law enforcement recovered six 9-millimeter shell casings at the scene. During a foot pursuit through a Trenton park, which eventually lead to his arrest, Lawery discarded a 9-millimeter unserialized semiautomatic pistol (a ghost gun) with a high-capacity 32-round magazine, which was loaded with twenty rounds of 9-millimeter ammunition.  The six recovered shell casings from the shooting scene were later confirmed by a ballistics laboratory to have been discharged from Lawery’s gun.

In addition to the prison term, Judge Castner sentenced Lawery to three years of supervised release.

U.S. Attorney Alina Habba credited special agents of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, Newark Field Division, Trenton Satellite Office, under the direction of Special Agent in Charge L.C. Cheeks, Jr., officers of the Trenton Police Department, under the direction of Police Director Steve E. Wilson, and detectives and prosecutors of the Mercer County Prosecutor’s Office, under the direction of Prosecutor Janetta D. Marbrey, for their work on this case.

The government is represented by Assistant U.S. Attorney Tracey Agnew of the U.S. Attorney’s Office’s Criminal Division in Trenton.

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Defense counsel: Andrea G. Aldana, Esq., Trenton