Berks man jailed for gun incident in West Pottsgrove
NORRISTOWN » A Berks County man who claimed he found a handgun on a city street and kept it for protection is on his way to jail for a weapons offense after he was found possessing it in West Pottsgrove Township.
Lewis Ligon, 38, of the 100 block of Robeson Street, Reading, was sentenced in Montgomery County Court to 11½ to 23 months in the county jail after he pleaded guilty to a felony charge of receiving stolen property in connection with the June 2017 incident in West Pottsgrove. Ligon will receive credit for the time he’s been in jail since June 4, 2017.
Judge Wendy G. Rothstein also ordered Ligon to complete 60 hours of community service and five years of probation following parole. Essentially, the sentence means Ligon will be under court supervision for about seven years.
Ligon, who is eligible for the jail’s work release program during his incarceration, must forfeit the firearm, a .380-caliber semiautomatic handgun to county detectives.
An investigation of Ligon began about 10:48 p.m. June 4 when township police stopped a 2004 Lexus vehicle, operated by Ligon, on westbound Route 422 for alleged speeding, according to a criminal complaint filed by West Pottsgrove Police Sergeant Steven Ziegler.
Police determined Ligon had a suspended and expired license, according to the arrest affidavit. When police looked in the glove compartment of the vehicle they observed a pistol in a holster, according to the criminal complaint.
“The serial number on the firearm was obliterated and could not be read. The magazine was loaded with six rounds,” Ziegler alleged in the arrest affidavit.
Other rounds were found after a consent search in the trunk area of the vehicle and those rounds matched the rounds in the firearm’s magazine, police said.
During an interview by police, Ligon said he found the gun in the area of 9th and Spring streets in Reading two weeks prior, according to the arrest affidavit.
“Ligon said that he had the firearm to protect his family” because a former friend of his wife was stalking them, according to the criminal complaint. Ligon told police his wife did not know that he had the firearm.
Under state law, by pleading guilty to the receiving stolen property charge, Ligon admitted that he received or retained the property of another knowing that it had been stolen or believing that it had probably been stolen.