LR teen sentenced in federal gun case

He gets almost 6 years in prison for selling illegal device, weapon to U.S. agents

A Pulaski County teenager who admitted in federal court in September to selling a machine gun conversion part and and a “ghost gun,” was sentenced to 57 months in federal prison Thursday.

Eric Jordan, 19, of Little Rock was indicted last January on two counts of transferring a machine gun and one count each of distribution of marijuana and cocaine. Jordan entered a guilty plea to one count of transfer of a machine gun just four days before he was scheduled to stand trial on the allegations. As part of the agreement, U.S. District Judge James M. Moody Jr. dismissed the remainder of the indictment on Assistant U.S. Attorney Lauren Eldridge’s motion.

According to Jordan’s plea agreement, the defendant admitted selling a “Glock switch” machine gun conversion device to a confidential informant on Nov. 8, 2022, and selling a “ghost gun” fitted with a conversion device a month later, on Dec. 8, 2022.

According to the Giffords Law Center, a ghost gun is a firearm that cannot be traced because it has no serial number or record of manufacture and is most often sold in kit form to be assembled by the purchaser. The firearm in question, according to court documents, was a Polymer 80 model PF940V2 9mm pistol, which is sold in kit form by a number of online distributors.

According to Jordan’s plea agreement, on Nov. 8, 2022, an investigator with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, through the use of a confidential informant, arranged to purchase a “Glock switch” from Jordan for $400. The document said that Jordan had been advertising the switches on social media and initially indicated that he had three for sale but later told the confidential informant that he had only one. The document said the two agreed to meet that afternoon at the Walmart parking lot on Geyer Springs Road in Little Rock.

At 5:09 p.m., the document said, Jordan and the confidential informant met at the Walmart parking lot for two minutes, at which time the confidential informant returned to the ATF vehicle and turned over one Glock switch.

A month later, on Dec. 8, 2022, the document said, another controlled buy was set up with Jordan using the same informant to purchase a ghost gun equipped with an extended magazine and a machine gun conversion device, and a half ounce each of cocaine and marijuana.

At 5:21 p.m., according to the document, Jordan sent the informant a location pin to his cellphone and about 40 minutes later the informant — with buy money in hand and equipped with recording devices — met with Jordan in the Walmart parking lot.

The document said that Jordan was accompanied by an unidentified juvenile who was seen pulling something from the waistband of his pants and handing it to Jordan just as Jordan stepped into the passenger side of the informant’s vehicle and shut the door.

Less than five minutes later, surveillance officers saw Jordan exit the vehicle walk with the juvenile to- ward the Orchards apartment complex while posting a video to social media of themselves flashing the ATF buy money from the exchange. The confidential informant met with investigators and turned over a Polymer 80 model PF940V2 9mm pistol equipped with an extended magazine and a machine gun conversion device as well as a half-ounce of marijuana. Further examination of the pistol, the document said, confirmed that it fired as a machine gun and had no discernible serial number.

In addition to the 57-month prison sentence, Moody ordered Jordan to serve three years’ supervised release after he leaves prison and to pay a $100 mandatory special assessment. Jordan was represented in court by Assistant Federal Public Defender Alex Betton.