Man jailed for false statements during attempted gun purchase
NORRISTOWN >> A former Delaware County man faces time in a Montgomery County jail after he admitted to lying on paperwork when he attempted to purchase a firearm from a West Norriton gun store.
Samuel Anthony Green, 38, formerly of the first block of South Lansdowne Avenue, Lansdowne, was sentenced in Montgomery County Court to 7-to23-months in the county jail after he pleaded guilty to a felony charge of making materially false written statements on firearm sale documents in connection with a March 2018 incident.
Judge Todd D. Eisenberg ordered Green to report to the jail in Lower Providence on July 10 to begin serving the sentence.
Green, whose most recent address was in the 100 block of East Wood Street in Norristown, is eligible for the jail’s work-release program during his incarceration, the judge said.
An investigation began in July 2018 when the Pennsylvania State Police Firearms Division notified West Norriton police that Green illegally attempted to purchase a firearm from Treeline Sports on West Main Street in West Norriton in March 2018, according to the criminal complaint.
The investigation determined that Green was at the gun store about 10 a.m. March 30 and attempted to purchase a Taurus .357-caliber firearm.
On required federal firearms transaction paperwork Green answered “No” when asked if he had ever been convicted of a felony or any crime for which he could be imprisoned for more than one year and indicated his answers on the form were “true and correct,” according to the criminal complaint filed by West Norriton Detective Charles Naber.
However, Green was convicted in 2001 of a felony drug-related offense in Philadelphia for which he was sentenced to two years’ probation, but could have been sentenced to up to seven years in prison, making his answer on the firearms paperwork incorrect, detectives alleged.
A gun store clerk declined Green’s attempted purchase of the firearm, court papers indicate.
The charge of making a materially false written statement is a felony which carries a maximum possible penalty of 3½-to-7-years in prison.