Maryland Man Sentenced to Five Years in Prison for Firearms Trafficking Conspiracy

            WASHINGTON – James Hutchings Jr., 41, of Waldorf, Maryland, was sentenced in the present day to 5 years in jail on a firearms trafficking conspiracy cost, introduced U.S. Lawyer Matthew M. Graves, Wayne A. Jacobs, Particular Agent in Cost of the FBI Washington Area Workplace Felony Division. and Charlie J. Patterson, Particular Agent in Cost of the Washington Area Division of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF).

            Hutchings was discovered responsible by a jury in Might 2022, following a trial within the U.S. District Courtroom for the District of Columbia. He was sentenced by the Honorable Chief Choose Beryl A. Howell. Following his jail time period, he might be positioned on three years of supervised launch.

            The conspiracy underpinning the decision and sentence started in 2018, when Hutchings helped facilitate the switch of a number of firearms into the arms of a convicted felon and narcotics trafficker, Linwood Douglas Thorne, 50, of Washington, D.C. Hutchings labored together with his firearms provider, a straw purchaser named Kofi Appiah, 33, of Temple Hills, Maryland, to assist buy the firearms within the state of Georgia and transport them into the District of Columbia.

            At trial, the federal government introduced a myriad of digital proof, showcasing the defendant’s involvement within the conspiracy, to incorporate his buy orders of firearms, his on-line fee course of, and his in depth connections with Thorne’s enterprise. The jury shortly returned a responsible verdict based mostly on the proof.

            Appiah was beforehand sentenced to 37 months’ imprisonment because of his function on this conspiracy, and Thorne awaits sentencing after a jury convicted him of his narcotics trafficking enterprise. Thorne faces as much as life in jail.

            In saying the sentence, U.S. Lawyer Graves Particular Agent in Cost Jacobs, and Particular Agent in Cost Patterson counseled the work of those that investigated the case, together with these from the ATF and FBI. Additionally they expressed appreciation for the help supplied by the U.S. Marshals Service, Prince George’s County, Md. Police Division, and the U.S. Lawyer’s Workplace for the District of Maryland. Moreover, they counseled the work of the U.S. Lawyer’s Workplace for the Center District of Georgia, which assisted within the arrest of Appiah, in 2019.

            Lastly, they expressed appreciation for the efforts of those that labored on the case from the U.S. Lawyer’s Workplace for the District of Columbia, together with Assistant U.S. Lawyer Gregory Rosen, who indicted and prosecuted the case, and Assistant U.S. Lawyer Samuel Frey, who tried the case alongside Paralegal Specialist Alexis Spencer-Anderson. Additionally they acknowledged the work of former Assistant U.S. Attorneys Brandon Regan and Andrea Duvall, who assisted within the case.