Upper Merion man faces prison on weapons charge
NORRISTOWN >> An Upper Merion man was sent to prison after he admitted to illegally possessing a handgun, which was found in his bedroom at his township residence.
Raheem “Heem” AbdulJabar Gillis, 36, of the 200 block of West DeKalb Pike, was sentenced in Montgomery County Court to 1½-to-3-years in a state correctional facility after he pleaded guilty to a felony charge of person not to possess firearms in connection with an October 2018 incident.
Judge Risa Vetri Ferman, who accepted a plea agreement in the case, ordered Gillis to forfeit the Colt .357-caliber handgun to the district attorney’s office as a condition of the sentence.
Court documents indicate Upper Merion police, based on information gathered from a confidential informant, began an investigation regarding alleged drug activity at the apartment Gillis shared with another man.
Police subsequently obtained a warrant to search the residence on Oct. 2, 2018, according to the criminal complaint. During the search of a bedroom linked to Gillis, police found a black Colt Python .357-caliber revolver hidden between a mattress and box spring, according to the arrest affidavit.
During a search of the nightstand in Gillis’s bedroom, police found 15 plastic cylinders that were “consistent with items commonly used as packaging material for drugs such as marijuana,” investigators alleged in the criminal complaint. A digital scale, commonly used to weigh illegal drugs, was also seized from Gillis’s bedroom, police alleged.
A records check determined Gillis had a prior felony conviction for drug activity, which prohibited him from possessing a firearm, according to the criminal complaint.
When Gillis was questioned by detectives, he allegedly admitted that he knew the handgun was under his bed and that it got there as a result of his placing it there, according to the arrest affidavit.
Other charges of possession with intent to deliver Xanax, possession of a small amount of marijuana, criminal use of a communication facility and possession of drug paraphernalia were dismissed against Gillis as part of the plea agreement.