Ex-Marine gets 2 years in gun case

Feds said Dey manufactured, sold firearms

TORRINGTON — A city man who was arrested last year by the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives on charges of knowingly possessing a machine gun was sentenced Wednesday to two years in prison,

Sean Dey, 40, of West Street, was initially charged with possession of a firearm without a serial number. He also was sentenced to one year of home confinement and three years of supervised release and was ordered to perform 100 hours of community service when he is released from prison.

According to the ATF, Dey, made a fully automatic machine gun called a Commando and sold it for $1,500.

Dey is free on $150,000 bond and is required to report to prison March 29.

Dey and George Jaiman, 69, of Bridgeport, pleaded guilty in Hartford federal court to charges related to the illegal manufacturing and possession of machine guns.

The government sentencing memorandum in the case said Dey, who retired from the U.S. Marines, invoked the Corps’ motto of “semper fidelis, as the basis for caring for his wife and asks for a departure because he administers that care and has lived the life of a Marine.”

“In doing so, however, he ignores that his conduct in this case was antithetical to the Marine Corps’ values, the government memo says.

“The fact that Mr. Dey knew the fully automatic

firearms he manufactured were (1) illegal, (2) being resold by a friend, and (3) being resold to individuals whom he neither knew nor cared to know. The fact that he personally sold one machinegun to a convicted felon in Bridgeport, Connecticut. The fact that he knew the machineguns he made were being sold not in his backyard, but in Bridgeport, Connecticut, over an hour away from his own home. Such behavior failed to ‘exemplify the ultimate in ethical and moral behavior’ and to ‘do what is right, to adhere to a higher standard of personal conduct, to lead by example, and to make tough decisions under stress and pressure.’”

“In light of the stringent requirements on licensed machinegun owners, including a blanket permit for federal government searches for the machine guns, and the availability of pre-1986 machineguns in Connecticut, the sole buyers for Mr. Dey’s manufactured machine guns were persons who wanted to avoid the stringent federal requirements,” the government memo said. “Mr. Dey’s clandestine sale of machineguns was not to the collector, but to the law breaker. Mr. Dey argues that because he sold all the guns, save one, to George Jaiman and George Jaiman alone, his ‘moral culpability’ is reduced because ‘he did not intend the guns he created to end up on the street.’

The memo submitted by the defense, however, said that Dey “served honorably in the Marine Corps, and his fouryear term of service included a deployment to Kosovo during the Kosovo War. Since that time, Mr. Dey’s service to his country has continued, including through his civic engagement with the Civil Air Patrol and most importantly through his long-term care of another military veteran, his wife,” for whom he cares each day.

Dey’s military history “distinguishes this case from many firearmsrelated cases in another important way,” the defense memo said. “Typically

A release from the office of the Connecticut U.S. Attorney said that, according to court documents and statements made in court, between July 2017 and April 2018, “Dey manufactured machine guns, including AK-47-style and AR-style machine guns, suppressors, and other firearms. Dey entered into an agreement with George Jaiman, of Bridgeport, to sell machine guns, suppressors and firearms to third parties for profit. Neither Dey nor Jaiman possessed a valid license to deal firearms.”

firearm possession and distribution cases are inextricably bound up in the associated risks of illegal gun use and possession. For Mr. Dey, however, this offense grew out of a perfectly lawful interest in firearms that was fostered not only by his own time in the military but also by his ongoing relationship with another military veteran.

”As the letters from his friends and family attest, Sean is skilled with his hands and has created finely crafted pieces of woodworking. That he turned his hand to gunsmithing is neither surprising nor inherently troubling. Sean’s further steps to create fully automatic weapons and to provide guns to another person took his conduct into the realm of criminality, and the course of events after the weapons left Mr. Dey’s hands shows the ... dangers of his actions,” the defense memo says. “But for Sean himself possession of automatic weapons was tied not to the illegal use of such weapons but rather to the mechanical intricacy of them. The Marines have a motto that ‘every Marine is a rifleman,’ and comfort with the proper handling and possession of such a weapon was thus an important piece of Sean Dey’s background. And when he turned his hand to creating — and sharing — these weapons, he believed that they would stay in the hands of those who, like him, would not think to misuse or abuse them.

“He was wrong. And because he broke the law, he faces not only sentencing but also ... the significant collateral consequences of a felony conviction. He will never be able to build or possess a gun again. For a man who has lived his life since active duty with the bearing and ethos of a Marine, that is a serious repercussion and it will be an enduring reminder of how his actions have stripped him of an otherwise honorable legacy of his military service,” the defense memo said.

A release from the office of the Connecticut U.S. Attorney said that, according to court documents and statements made in court, between July 2017 and April 2018, “Dey manufactured machine guns, including AK-47-style and AR-style machine guns, suppressors, and other firearms. Dey entered into an agreement with George Jaiman, of Bridgeport, to sell machine guns, suppressors and firearms to third parties for profit. Neither Dey nor Jaiman possessed a valid license to deal firearms.”

On March 28, 2018, in Bridgeport, Jaiman was found to be in possession of “an AK-47 style machine gun and an AR-style machine gun bearing a suppressor, neither of which had a serial number,” the release said. “On April 3, 2018, Dey transferred an AR-style machine gun, which he had manufactured, to another individual for cash.”

Jaiman pleaded guilty to one count of unlawful possession of a machine gun on Oct. 26, and awaits sentencing, the release said.