PROVIDENCE, R.I. – Justice Reyes, 19, of Pawtucket, was ordered detained in federal custody on Wednesday, having been indicted by a federal grand jury on Tuesday on a charge of possession of a firearm with an obliterated serial number.
According to information presented to the court at the time of Reyes’ arraignment before U.S. District Court Magistrate Lincoln D. Almond, it is alleged that on April 1, 2016, an undercover ATF agent bought a .22 caliber semi-automatic rifle from Reyes for $350. Reyes allegedly specified that the serial number had been obliterated, and that he could get the undercover and the undercover’s associates additional guns with obliterated serial numbers. The transaction allegedly occurred outside Reyes’s residence, the place where he was to be serving home confinement.
According to Rhode Island state court records, Reyes was sentenced on March 17, 2016, to one year home confinement for violating a suspended sentence imposed on January 29, 2016, having pleaded nolo contendre to a charge of simple assault domestic. Reyes began serving his home confinement sentence two weeks prior to allegedly selling the firearm to an ATF agent.
An indictment is merely an allegation and is not evidence of guilt. A defendant is entitled to a fair trial in which it will be the government’s burden to prove guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.
The case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Milind M. Shah.
The matter was investigated by ATF and the Rhode Island AFT Task Force, with the assistance of the Pawtucket Police Department. The Rhode Island ATF Task Force is comprised of law enforcement agents and officers from the Central Falls, Providence and Cranston Police Departments, the Department of Corrections, and the Providence Fire Department.
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