Brothers Sentenced For Selling Firearms To Felon

CINCINNATI, OHIO – Shannon Bradley, 36, of Leesburg, Ohio, was sentenced to 41 months in prison and his brother, Christopher Bradley, 39, of Blanchester, Ohio was sentenced to 12 months and one day in prison for selling firearms to a convicted felon.

Carter M. Stewart, United States Attorney for the Southern District of Ohio, and Michael Boxler, Special Agent in Charge, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, Columbus Field Division (ATF), announced the sentences imposed today by U.S. District Court Judge Michael R. Barrett.

A U.S. District Court jury convicted Christopher Bradley on August 18, 2013 of selling 16 firearms to someone he believed had been convicted of a felony. Federal law prohibits convicted felons from owning or possessing firearms.

According to trial testimony, on March 2, 2012, Christopher Bradley sold seven firearms to an informant who he had reason to believe was a convicted felon and who repeatedly mentioned that he planned to resell the firearms in Cincinnati to “people that might need to use them and ditch them” and to people that were “protecting their dope houses and not getting killed.” Bradley sold six more guns and ammunition to the same informant seven days later.

During a recorded phone call with Christopher Bradley, the informant again advised Bradley that he had one felony on his record. Christopher and Shannon Bradley then sold a total of three more guns and ammunition to the informant on March 21, 2012. 

Shannon Bradley pleaded guilty on October 26, 2012 to one count of selling firearms to a felon, after obtaining guns from his brother.

“The defendants’ conduct is particularly alarming in that they sold firearms to someone who they  knew or thought to be a criminal in total disregard for the safety of the community,” Anthony Springer, Branch Chief of the U.S. Attorney’s Cincinnati office, told the court prior to sentencing.

Stewart commended the investigation by ATF agents, along with Cincinnati Branch Chief Springer and former Special Assistant U.S. Attorney Greg Stephens, who prosecuted the case.