Hartford Felon Admits Possessing Loaded Handgun
Vanessa Roberts Avery, United States Attorney for the District of Connecticut, announced that Gabriel Horace Williams-Bey, 34, of Hartford, pleaded guilty today before U.S. District Judge Sarala V. Nagala in Hartford to unlawful possession of a firearm by a felon.
According to court documents and statements made in court, on June 30, 2022, Hartford Police seized a loaded semi-automatic pistol from inside a vehicle that Williams-Bey was driving.
Williams-Bey’s criminal history includes a state firearms conviction, multiple state narcotics convictions, and a federal narcotics conviction for which he was sentenced, in June 2016, to eight years of imprisonment and four years of supervised release.
It is a violation of federal law for a person previously convicted of a felony offense to possess a firearm or ammunition that has moved in interstate or foreign commerce.
Williams-Bey was released from federal prison in August 2021 and was on federal supervised release at the time of this offense.
At sentencing, which is not scheduled, Williams-Bey faces a maximum term of imprisonment of 15 years. He also faces additional penalties for violating the conditions of his supervised release.
Williams-Bey has been detained in federal custody since July 12, 2022.
This matter has been investigated by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) and the Hartford Police Department. The case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Kenneth L. Gresham through Project Safe Neighborhoods (PSN), the centerpiece of the Department of Justice’s violent crime reduction efforts. PSN is an evidence-based program proven to be effective at reducing violent crime. Through PSN, a broad spectrum of stakeholders works together to identify the most pressing violent crime problems in the community and develop comprehensive solutions to address them. As part of this strategy, PSN focuses enforcement efforts on the most violent offenders and partners with locally based prevention and reentry programs for lasting reductions in crime.
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