Maryland Man Sentenced to 37 Months in Prison for Illegally Possessing and Selling Stolen Firearm in D.C.
Arrest Followed Investigation in Maryland and D.C.
WASHINGTON – Eric Rory, 40, of Suitland, Md., was sentenced today to 37 months in prison for illegally possessing and selling firearms.
The announcement was made by U.S. Attorney Jessie K. Liu, Ashan M. Benedict, Special Agent in Charge of the Washington Field Division of the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), and Henry P. Stawinski III, Chief of the Prince George’s County, Md. Police Department.
Rory pled guilty on Dec. 14, 2018, in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, to possession of a firearm by a person previously convicted of a crime punishable by more than one year. He was sentenced by the Honorable Randolph D. Moss. Following his prison term, he will be placed on three years of supervised release.
The guilty plea followed an investigation last spring by ATF and the Prince George’s County Police Department into Rory’s activities selling firearms. According to the plea agreement, in May of 2018, Rory arranged to sell a firearm to another individual in the Fairfax Village area of Southeast Washington. Rory met the individual and drove him around the block in his SUV. While inside the car, Rory sold the man a 9-mm handgun that was previously stolen from a federally licensed firearms retailer in Virginia. Rory sold the firearm and ammunition for $700. Rory possessed a second firearm inside the SUV but did not sell it on that date.
At the time of his arrest, Rory was on supervised release after pleading guilty in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia to a 2012 drug trafficking offense; he was sentenced to a five-year prison term for that crime. Additionally, Rory was convicted in 2013 of a drug offense in the Superior Court of the District of Columbia.
Rory is additionally charged with possession of two firearms and possession with the intent to distribute controlled substances in the District of Maryland in connection with this investigation. That matter is pending.
This case is being investigated by ATF and the Prince George’s County Police Department. It is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Kevin L. Rosenberg and Gregory Rosen of the Violent Crime and Narcotics Trafficking Section of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia.
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