Witnesses: Accused gun trafficker sought their help
NORRISTOWN » One by one, the admitted conspirators of an accused Lower Pottsgrove gun trafficker identified him in court as the person who recruited them to help make “straw purchases” so he could illegally obtain handguns.
Corey DeJohnette told a Montgomery County jury on Thursday that Michael Hill was “persuasive” when he took him to a gun show at the Greater Philadelphia Expo Center in Upper Providence on Dec. 18, 2015.
“We walked around… looking at guns. Mike proceeded to point out a few guns and I bought two of them,” DeJohnette testified for Assistant District Attorney Robert Kolansky as Hill’s trial continued in county court. “I purchased the firearms for Michael.”
DeJohnette, whose brother Phillipe provided similar testimony on Wednesday, told the jury of eight women and four men that Hill provided the money to purchase the guns.
DeJohnette, who could legally purchase firearms, filled out the required state and federal paperwork indicating he was the purchaser even though the weapons were for Hill, who has a lengthy criminal record and was not permitted to possess firearms. DeJohnette, who testified he didn’t know what Hill was going to do with the guns, admitted he lied on the government paperwork and knew what he was doing was wrong.
Such criminal behavior is commonly referred to as “straw purchases.” A straw purchase, detectives explained to the jury, occurs when the buyer of a firearm uses another person, a “straw purchaser,” to execute the paperwork necessary to purchase a firearm from a federally licensed firearms dealer.
Another man, Chad Hill, testified he couldn’t legally purchase a firearm but that he helped link Michael Hill to another man who could and the trio went to a gun show in August 2016. Chad Hill is not related to Michael Hill.
“We walked around from vendor to vendor until Mike saw a gun that he liked,” Chad Hill testified, adding the third man, now deceased, made a straw purchase on Michael Hill’s behalf and gave Michael Hill the gun.
Chad Hill testified he helped arrange the straw purchase with the hope that Michael Hill would reduce the drug debt Chad owed him.
Chad Hill, 19, of the 100 block of North Walnut Street, Birdsboro, and DeJohnette, 23, of the 100 block of Anthony Wayne Drive, West Pottsgrove, previously pleaded guilty to various felony charges in connection with their roles in the illegal gun purchases. Testimony revealed the admitted conspirators had proffer agreements under which prosecutors promised to make their cooperation known to their sentencing judges.
Michael Hill, 30, of the 2900 block of Walnut Ridge Estates, faces charges of
corrupt organizations, criminal use of a communication
facility, unsworn falsification to authorities, unlawful transfer of a firearm, person not to possess firearms and dealing in proceeds of unlawful activities in connection with seven
completed straw purchases and three attempted straw purchases that occurred between February 2015 and December 2016.
During the investigation, authorities also rounded up
six of Michael Hill’s alleged associates, those who conspired with Hill by either purchasing or attempting to purchase firearms on Hill’s behalf. Michael Hill, detectives alleged, supplied
the funds, the transportation and was present for some of the straw purchases or attempted straw purchases.
Anthony “Tek” Walker, 29, of the 200 block of North Gross Street, Philadelphia, identified in court papers as “a close associate of Michael Hill’s,” also is on trial with Hill on corrupt organizations and various weapons- and conspiracy-related charges. Walker, who is represented by defense lawyer Robert Craig Keller, allegedly took part in an attempted straw purchase at a gun show and knew the workings of the organization, according to the criminal complaint.
Keller has argued Walker had nothing to do with the alleged gun trafficking activities.
Defense lawyer Pietro D’Angelo, who represents Michael Hill, suggested the alleged conspirators gave inconsistent statements to detectives and can’t be trusted.
Several other people allegedly involved in the organization previously pleaded guilty to weapons- or conspiracy-related charges and are awaiting sentencing.
“The main purpose of this corrupt organization was to arm individuals, including Hill, who are precluded from legally owning a firearm…due to their criminal history,” county detectives alleged in court documents. “Hill recruited and employed individuals in this gun trafficking organization with ‘clean’ criminal histories. These underlings then falsified documents to purchase multiple firearms on Hill’s behalf.”
The joint investigation was conducted by the district attorney’s Violent Crime Unit, officers from the Pottstown, West Pottsgrove and Lower Pottsgrove
police departments and the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.
In August 2016, a Pottstown man was charged in connection with an armed robbery in West Pottsgrove and investigators seized a Ruger P-90 .45-caliber semiautomatic handgun from his residence. Investigators identified the registered owner of the firearm as Corey DeJohnette, who legally purchased it at a gun show in Upper Providence in December 2015, according to the criminal complaint.
“This firearm was not reported stolen by Corey DeJohnette. Based on this investigation, law enforcement had identified Corey DeJohnette as a straw purchaser in the Michael Hill gun trafficking organization,” detectives alleged.
Detectives with the Violent Crime Unit testified for Assistant District Attorney Brianna Ringwood that they used old-fashioned surveillance, cellphone records and search warrants to link Michael Hill to the gun trafficking organization. Hill, detectives alleged, frequented various gun shows held at the Greater Philadelphia Expo Center in Upper Providence and undercover detectives placed him under surveillance and observed Hill “walking from vendor to vendor and looking at various firearms and firearm accessories for sale.”
On Dec. 19, 2016, detectives, armed with a warrant approved by a judge, searched Hill’s Lower Pottsgrove residence. A detective testified that during the search, authorities seized three firearms and several empty gun boxes and 396 live rounds of various types of ammunition.