Pottstown gun charge lands man in prison
Lukas Riley Brown, 26, of West Whiteland, was sentenced to 4½-to-9-years in a state correctional facility.
NORRISTOWN >> A Chester County man is headed to prison after he admitted to illegally possessing a gun in Pottstown.
Lukas Riley Brown, 26, of the 700 block of Livingston Lane, West Whiteland Township, was sentenced in Montgomery County Court to 4½-to-9-years in a state correctional facility after he pleaded guilty to a felony charge of person not to possess a firearm in connection with a September 2018 incident.
The sentence was imposed by Judge Thomas C. Branca, who accepted a plea agreement in the matter. The judge said the .40-caliber Smith & Wesson handgun will be forfeited to the county district attorney’s office.
The investigation began about 10:30 p.m. Sept. 4, 2018, when Pottstown police conducted a traffic stop of a vehicle operated by Brown at King and North Evans streets, allegedly for suspended registration and insurance cancellation, according to a criminal complaint. Police subsequently advised Brown that he would be released from the scene but he could not drive the vehicle because his registration allegedly was suspended for insurance cancellation.
Police also detected an odor of marijuana inside the vehicle, according to a criminal complaint filed by Pottstown Police Sergeant Michael Ponto. The 1998 Infiniti vehicle subsequently was impounded and police conducted an inventory search, court papers indicate.
“I opened the driver’s side door and saw a blue shirt on the floor against the driver’s seat,” Ponto alleged in the criminal complaint, adding when he picked up the shirt he saw that it had been covering a Smith & Wesson .40-caliber handgun.
The gun was loaded with eight rounds of .40-caliber ammunition, “all in the magazine,” Ponto alleged.
A records check determined Brown did not have a permit to carry a concealed weapon. Police alleged the investigation also determined that Brown had a prior criminal record that prohibited him from possessing a firearm.
Armed with a warrant, police conducted a full search of the vehicle and uncovered a canister containing marijuana, three other canisters containing marijuana residue and a pipe with marijuana residue, according to the criminal complaint.
As part of the plea agreement, other charges of firearms not to be carried without a license, possessing a small amount of marijuana and possessing drug paraphernalia were dismissed against Brown.