BOSTON – A previously convicted felon was sentenced today in U.S. District Court in Springfield for being in possession of a firearm with an obliterated serial number.
Lavon Pemberton, 28, was sentenced by U.S. District Court Judge Michael A. Ponsor to seven years in prison and three years of supervised release after pleading guilty in September 2015.
On June 15, 2012, Pemberton possessed a Taurus .357 caliber handgun loaded with six rounds of hollow-point .380 ammunition. Law enforcement officers discovered the firearm in Pemberton’s backpack after arresting him on an outstanding warrant. Pemberton has a an extensive, violent criminal history, including a 2012 conviction for attempted second degree assault for which he was sentenced to a five-year suspended sentence just three days before being caught with the handgun and ammunition.
United States Attorney Carmen M. Ortiz; Daniel J. Kumor, Special Agent in Charge of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms & Explosives, Boston Field Division; and Commissioner John Barbieri of the Springfield Police Department, made the announcement today. The case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Kevin O’Regan and Katharine A. Wagner of Ortiz’s Springfield Branch Office.