Pottstown man sentenced for illegal transfer of firearms
NORRISTOWN » A Pottstown man faces several years of court supervision for transferring four firearms he purchased to a person who was ineligible to possess a firearm.
Zachary Mercer, 28, of the 600 block of Beech Street, was sentenced in Montgomery County Court to one month already served to 23 months in jail after he pleaded guilty to felony charges of selling firearms to an ineligible person in connection with incidents that occurred between June and December 2015 in Norristown.
Judge Garrett D. Page also ordered Mercer to complete four years’ probation following parole, meaning Mercer will be under court supervision for about six years.
An investigation began on Dec. 12, 2015, when Norristown police responded to a report of a burglary at a residence in the 1000 block of West Airy Street. Mercer told authorities the basement area he rented at that time had been ransacked and that four firearms were missing.
The firearms included a Glock Model 19 9 mm semiautomatic handgun, a Charter Arms .38-caliber revolver and two 12 gauge shotguns, according to a criminal complaint. Detectives determined Mercer had purchased the firearms from two different sporting goods stores in June 2015.
On Jan. 5, 2016, however, after further investigation, Mercer disclosed to detectives that he provided a false report to Norristown police when he reported the firearms were stolen on Dec. 12.
“Mercer disclosed that his living space was not burglarized and the handguns and shotguns were not stolen. Mercer told police that he purchased the handguns and shotguns for another person,” Norristown Detective David Crawford wrote in the arrest affidavit.
Mercer told detectives that another Norristown man who worked as a cab driver offered him $1,350 to purchase the handguns and asked Mercer to register the firearms in Mercer’s name, according to the criminal complaint. Mercer subsequently agreed to purchase the firearms for the man and accepted money for the transactions, detectives said.
Court papers do not indicate if the receiver of the firearms was charged with any crimes.