Boston - An Easthampton man was sentenced late yesterday in federal court to 35 months in prison for illegally possessing firearms, after having been previously convicted of a felony.
Kirt Brooks, 40, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Michael A. Ponsor to 35 months in prison to be followed by three years of supervised release after pleading guilty on April 2, 2010, to two counts of illegally possessing firearm afer being convicted of a felony.
Had the case proceeded to trial, the Government’s evidence would have proven that in Jan. 2005, Brooks arranged for his co-defendant, Jeremy Wright, to steal a Raven .25 caliber pistol and a Bryco 9mm pistol from the home of Brooks’s father in Westfield. Wright then traded the guns to a narcotics trafficker in Holyoke for crack cocaine. At the time, both Brooks and Wright had been previously convicted of a crime punishable by more than one year in prison, making the possession of the firearms illegal. On Feb. 8, 2012, Wright was sentenced to 17 years in prison by Judge Ponsor.
United States Attorney Carmen M. Ortiz; Guy N. Thomas, Special Agent in Charge of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives - Boston Field Division; Chief Bruce McMahon of the Easthampton Police Department; Chief James Neiswanger of the Holyoke Police Department; Chief John A. Camerota of the Westfield Police Department; and Daryl K. Roberts of the Hartford, Connecticut Police Department made the announcement today. The case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Steven H. Breslow of Ortiz’s Springfield Branch Office.
