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TRENTON - Attorney General Anne Milgram and Criminal Justice Director Gregory A. Paw announced that five men were charged today in separate indictments with illegally selling guns in Trenton. The charges stem from the state’s historic partnership with the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives to trace guns seized in criminal investigations.
The five defendants were charged as a result of investigations conducted by a New Jersey State Police - ATF task force. The investigations involved guns that were seized by the Trenton Police Department and traced to gun shops and purchasers in Pennsylvania.
The NJ Trace program, unveiled last summer by the ATF, Gov. Jon S. Corzine, Milgram and State Police Superintendent Rick Fuentes, permits law enforcement agencies statewide to trace guns using ATF’s nationwide e-Trace database. The program is the first of its kind in the nation. Milgram issued a directive in February ordering all local police departments in New Jersey to report information on guns used in crimes to the State Police and ATF using a new state computer program called the NJ Trace System.
Milgram and Fuentes also established a New Jersey State Police - ATF Violent Gang Task Force, which assigns State Police detectives to the ATF to work with cooperating law enforcement agencies to trace guns that are linked to crimes or seized from drug dealers and gang members. State Police detectives and a Mercer County sheriff’s officer assigned to the task force conducted the investigations resulting in today’s indictments with assistance from the ATF Trenton Field Office. They worked cooperatively with the Trenton Police Department, the New Jersey Division of Criminal Justice and the Office of Bucks County District Attorney Michelle Henry, which is investigating cases involving illegal gun sales in Pennsylvania.
According to ATF statistics, approximately 72 percent of the guns recovered by police in New Jersey in 2007 and traced to their state of origin came from outside of New Jersey. Approximately 14 percent - the largest share of any other state - came from Pennsylvania.
“The NJ Trace initiative will help us solve crimes, identify gun traffickers and halt the proliferation of illegal guns that gang members in New Jersey are using to terrorize our communities,” said Attorney General Milgram. “We expect to charge many more defendants through this groundbreaking partnership with ATF.”
“To achieve success, we must ensure that all recovered crime guns are traced,” said Mark W. Potter, Special Agent in Charge of ATF’s Philadelphia Field Division. “The trace result, in the hands of a diligent investigator, often leads to convictions of interstate firearms traffickers. This partnership will continue to be innovative in its methods to keep New Jersey safe.”
“These guns, purchased in Pennsylvania and sold illegally in Trenton, are the tools of violence put in the hands of outlaws. Every person we arrest through the e-Trace program closes the pipeline through which illegal guns enter our state,” said Colonel Rick Fuentes.
In the cases indicted today, some of the defendants were original purchasers from the gun shops. Others were not, but detectives traced the guns to them.
According to Director Paw, the following defendants were indicted today:
Matthew McGinty: McGinty, 26, of Doylestown, Pa., was charged with three counts of third-degree unlawful possession of a weapon and three counts of fourth-degree unlawful disposition of a firearm. On Sept. 9, 2005, Trenton police recovered an abandoned Taurus .38-caliber revolver on Chestnut Street in Trenton, an area known for gang violence and narcotics activity. An ATF check of the gun revealed that it was purchased by McGinty on May 24, 2003 at a Bucks County sporting goods store. McGinty lived in Yardley, Pa., at the time. Task force members used the Pennsylvania State Police Gun Record and Sale System to determine that McGinty also purchased a Sig Sauer .357-caliber pistol on July 23, 2003, and his father purchased a Bushmaster .223 rifle on June 16, 2003. The rifle was recovered in Trenton on Oct. 29, 2004 during an investigation by the Mercer County Prosecutor’s Office. It is alleged that McGinty illegally sold all three guns in Trenton in October 2004.
Donald Clark: Clark, 36, of Morrisville, Pa., was charged with two counts of third-degree unlawful possession of a weapon and two counts of fourth-degree unlawful disposition of a firearm. It is alleged that Clark illegally sold a Cobra CA380 semi-automatic handgun and a Izhmash IJ70 .380-caliber semi-automatic handgun in Trenton. The Cobra handgun was recovered by the Trenton Police on Nov. 18, 2004 after it was discarded by a suspect following a report of shots fired. The Izhmash was seized by the Trenton Police on Aug. 23, 2004 from a man, Terrance Travers, who was later prosecuted by the Mercer County Prosecutor’s Office and convicted of firing the gun at a Trenton police officer. The State Police - ATF task force determined that Clark purchased both guns from the same Bucks County gun shop, the Izhmash on July, 24, 2004, and the Cobra on Aug. 16, 2004.
Nicholas James Titus: Titus, 39, of Morrisville, Pa., was charged with third-degree unlawful possession of a weapon and fourth-degree unlawful disposition of a firearm. On Oct. 11, 2005, Trenton Police arrested a Trenton man on Chestnut Avenue and seized a loaded CETME .308-caliber semi-automatic rifle. The man, Anthony Bayshawn Ford, was prosecuted for weapons offenses by the Mercer County Prosecutor’s Office and sentenced to four years in state prison in December 2005 in connection with the rifle. An ATF check revealed that the gun was purchased by a Morrisville, Pa., man on May 30, 2003 at a Bucks County sporting goods store. State Police task force members determined that the purchaser, a friend of Titus, provided the gun to Titus, who allegedly sold it in Trenton in September or October 2005.
Arthur Arrison: Arrison, 52, of Hamilton, N.J., was charged with third-degree unlawful possession of a weapon and fourth-degree unlawful disposition of a firearm. On Nov. 13, 2006, the Trenton Police recovered a Ruger GP100 .357-caliber revolver that was discarded by a suspect involved in a dispute on Wall Street in Trenton. An ATF check revealed that Arrison’s brother bought the gun on Nov. 10, 1998, at a Bucks County sporting goods store. Arrison obtained the gun from his brother and allegedly sold it in Trenton in the summer of 2005.
Benjamin Travers: Travers, 50, of Trenton, was charged with third-degree unlawful possession of a weapon and fourth-degree unlawful disposition of a firearm for allegedly selling a Glock 9mm pistol. The pistol was seized by members of the Pennsauken Police Department on May 4, 2007 during an investigation. An investigation by members of the State Police - ATF task force revealed that the gun was purchased by Travers on Aug. 27, 2002, from a Bucks County sporting goods store. Travers had a Morrisville, Pa., address at the time. Travers allegedly sold the gun to a man in Trenton sometime between December 2004 and May 2007.
The investigations were conducted by State Police - ATF task force members Detective Sgt. Eric Barlow and Detective Brian Duross of the New Jersey State Police, Mercer County Sheriff’s Officer Pablo Santiago, and Resident Agent in Charge Essam Rabadi of the ATF Trenton Field Office. The cases were presented to the state grand jury by Deputy Attorneys General Andrew Butchko, Philip Aronow, Suzanne McElwreath and Daniel Bornstein.
The indictments are merely accusations and the defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty. Third-degree crimes carry a maximum sentence of five years in state prison and a criminal fine of $15,000, while fourth-degree crimes carry a maximum sentence of 18 months in prison and a criminal fine of $10,000.
View Indictments (496k PDF)
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