Man enters plea in gun trafficking case
A no-contest plea was entered by a man involved in a Lower Pottsgrove straw purchase of firearms.
NORRISTOWN » Months after a jury could not reach a verdict against him, a Philadelphia man who prosecutors alleged conspired with a Lower Pottsgrove Township man during an attempted straw purchase of firearms has resolved his case with a no-contest plea.
Anthony “Tek” Walker, 29, of the 200 block of North Gross Street, Philadelphia, entered the nocontest plea in Montgomery County Court to a misdemeanor charge of conspiracy to unsworn falsification to authorities, according to court documents.
Under state law, a nocontest plea is not an admission of guilt but is an admission that prosecutors have sufficient evidence to convict.
Under state law, the outcome is still considered a conviction.
Judge Garrett D. Page sentenced Walker to one year of probation under the plea agreement.
In October, a jury could not reach a verdict against Walker who prosecutors accused of conspiring with Michael Hill in an attempted straw purchase of two firearms at a Dec. 18, 2016, gun show at the Greater Philadelphia Expo Center in Upper Providence.
Jurors expressed they were deadlocked in the case against Walker and so Judge Page declared a mistrial in Walker’s case.
Prosecutors then had to re-evaluate the case and decide whether to seek another trial against Walker. In the interim, the plea agreement apparently was worked out between prosecutors and Walker.
That same jury convicted Hill, 31, of the 2900 block of Walnut Ridge Estates, Lower Pottsgrove, of 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 two attempted straw purchases that occurred between February 2015 and December 2016.
Hill, who prosecutors alleged spearheaded the gun trafficking network, is being held in the county jail while awaiting sentencing on the charges. Hill potentially faces decades in prison when he’s sentenced later this year by Page.
During the trial, prosecutors had alleged Walker was “a close associate of Michael Hill’s.”
Walker testified during the trial that he had no knowledge of and did not participate in any gun trafficking activities.
During the trial, several other people who admitted being involved in the conspiracy testified against Hill, identifying him in court as the person
who recruited them to help make “straw purchases” so he could illegally obtain handguns. Many of the witnesses testified Hill supplied the funds, the transportation and was present for some of the straw purchases or attempted straw purchases at several gun shows in Upper Providence.
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.
A female conspirator testified Walker paid the fee for the background check at the Dec. 18, 2016, gun show when she filled out state and federal paperwork in an attempt to purchase two firearms for Hill. The purchases were subsequently delayed by the vendor, testimony revealed.
But defense lawyer Robert Craig Keller, who represented Walker, argued Walker had nothing to do with the gun trafficking activities. At trial, Keller argued Walker’s “mere presence” at the gun show with Hill and another of Hill’s conspirators was not evidence Walker was part of a corrupt organization.
During the trial, Prosecutors Robert Kolansky and Brianna Ringwood presented testimony from detectives from the county’s Violent Crime Unit who linked Hill and Walker through surveillance and through alleged incriminating text message conversations they had on the day of the Dec. 18 gun show.
Detectives testified video surveillance showed Walker arriving at Hill’s Lower Pottsgrove home that day and then leaving together. A detective testified he later observed Hill, Walker and a female conspirator at the gun show walking from vendor to vendor, the same day the two attempted straw purchases occurred.
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.
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.