Boston Career Criminal Pleads Guilty to Drug and Firearm Charges

BOSTON – A career criminal, still on supervised release from a previous federal drug trafficking conviction, pleaded guilty today in federal court in Boston to drug trafficking and firearm charges.

Damien Bynoe, 44, of Roxbury, pleaded guilty to one count each of being a felon in possession of a firearm and ammunition and possession with intent to distribute heroin and cocaine. U.S. District Court Judge William G. Young scheduled sentencing for April 29, 2020. 

On Jan. 19, 2019, police officers executed a search warrant and seized a loaded gun, heroin and cocaine from an apartment in Roxbury tied to Bynoe, as well as additional amounts of heroin and cocaine from Bynoe himself.

In 2009, Bynoe was convicted in federal court in Boston of distribution of cocaine base within 1000 feet of a school. For that offense, Bynoe was sentenced to six years in prison and six years of supervised release. While on supervised release, Bynoe was arrested and charged with the offenses he was sentenced for today. 

According to court documents, Bynoe’s criminal record also includes a 2007 conviction for assault with a firearm; a 2001 conviction for distribution of cocaine in a school zone, for which he served five years in prison; and a 1991 juvenile delinquency adjudication for murder and unlawful possession of a firearm, in which Bynoe shot and killed two teenagers on a Roxbury street.

On the felon in possession of a firearm charge, based on his prior criminal record, Bynoe faces a mandatory minimum sentence of 15 years and up to life in prison, up to five years of supervised release and a fine of up to $250,000. The charge of possession with intent to distribute heroin and cocaine provides for a sentence of up to 30 years in prison, at least six years of supervised release and a fine of up to $2 million. Sentences are imposed based upon the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.

United States Attorney Andrew Lelling; Kelly D. Brady, Special Agent in Charge of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, Boston Field Division; and Boston Police Commissioner William Gross made the announcement today. Assistant U.S. Attorney Christopher Pohl of Lelling’s Narcotics and Money Laundering Unit is prosecuting the case.