MAN GETS PRISON FOR ROLE FENCING HOT MILITARY GUNS

A Boston man has been sentenced to nearly five years in prison for conspiring to sell machine guns and other weapons stolen from the U.S. Army Reserve Center in Worcester.

Tyrone James, 29, of Dorchester was sentenced yesterday to 57 months in prison, followed by 36 months of supervised release.

In January 2016, James and two co-defendants, Ashley Bigsbee and James Morales, were indicted on charges of conspiracy to possess, store and sell stolen firearms; possession and sale of stolen firearms; and lying to federal agents. James also was charged with being a felon in possession of firearms. Last December, he pleaded guilty to all charges.

On the night of Nov. 14, 2015, prosecutors said Morales broke into a weapons vault inside the Lincoln Stoddard U.S. Army Reserve Center and stole 10 M-11 semiautomatic handguns and six M-4 carbines, a military weapon capable of firing a three-bullet “burst” at each pull of the trigger, which classifies it as a machine gun under federal law.

The following morning, Morales visited Bigsbee and James at their Dorchester apartment, prosecutors said, and the two agreed to help Morales sell several of the weapons.

Bigsbee’s and James’s phones were later found to contain text messages to numerous people, offering to sell the firearms well below the market and street values, prosecutors said.

The two arranged for Morales to sell several of the handguns in their apartment on Nov. 15, 2015, prosecutors said. In exchange for their help, Morales gave James and Bigsbee one of the M-4 carbines, which one or both of the suspects put into a duffel bag and brought to the Dorchester home of an acquaintance, who agreed to store it, prosecutors said. That weapon was recovered by federal agents on Nov. 27, 2015, outside the acquaintance’s home, prosecutors said.

During an interview on Nov. 20, 2015, James repeatedly lied to federal agents about his knowledge of the sale of the firearms, prosecutors said. He previously had been convicted of three counts of armed robbery and one count of armed assault in a dwelling, making him a felon in possession of those weapons, prosecutors said.

On March 15 of this year, Bigsbee was sentenced to 21 months in prison. Morales is scheduled to go on trial on April 18.