Williamstown Felon Jailed for Selling Firearms

The Office of the United States Attorney for the District of Vermont stated that Lawrence A. Griffen, Jr., age 50, of Williamstown, Vermont, was sentenced to a year in jail today by Judge William K. Sessions, III, in U.S. District Court in Burlington. Griffen was arrested last summer by agents with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, after he sold five guns to an undercover agent in three transactions. Griffen has prior felony convictions in both federal and State court, arising out of transactions involving motor vehicles. In November, 2017, he pleaded guilty to one of the transactions, in which he sold a semi-automatic pistol.

At sentencing before Judge Sessions today, Griffen urged that he had multiple physical impairments requiring regular medical care. He proposed a sentence of home detention. Judge Sessions pointed out that Griffen had received probationary terms from State of Vermont courts in 2013 and 2014, but had gone on to commit the federal firearms offense in 2017. Ultimately the court downwardly varied from the 24 – 30 month term of imprisonment calculated under the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines, and imposed a term of 12 months and a day. Judge Sessions ordered Griffen to surrender to the Bureau of Prisons to begin serving his sentence on April 10. The court ordered him to surrender to the Federal Medical Center in Devens, Massachusetts, a federal prison for persons with significant medical issues. Judge Sessions also imposed a two-year term of supervised release to begin upon release from prison, along with a $100 special assessment.

Griffen was represented by Attorney Kevin Henry of Burlington. The United States was represented by Assistant U.S. Attorney William Darrow.