The Middletown Press (Middletown, CT)
CT man accused of stealing guns from Newington store faces federal charges
NEW HAVEN — A federal grand jury returned an indictment Tuesday charging a former Willimantic resident with gun and drug offenses after he was arrested in the theft of more than 30 guns from the Hoffman’s Gun Center in Newington last year, the U.S. attorney’s office said.
The indictment charges Kwitzpatrick Duffany, 36, formerly of Willimantic, with theft of firearms from a licensee; unlawful possession of firearms by a felon; possession with intent to distribute fentanyl and cocaine; and use of a firearm during, and in relation to, a drug trafficking crime, the office said in a news release. The charges carry a maximum term of about 50 years in prison.
Duffany has been in custody since his May 31 arrest on unrelated state charges, the release said.
According to the indictment from a jury in U.S.
District Court in New Haven, Duffany stole more than 30 firearms from Hoffman’s “Guns for the Good Guys,” a federal firearms licensee in Newington, on May 27. On that date, Duffany also had fentanyl and cocaine that he planned to distribute, and he “used a firearm in relation to that offense,” the release said.
The gun theft charges remain in state Superior Court in New Britain, and Duffany has about a halfdozen other pending cases in Hartford, Danielson and Norwich courts, as well, judicial records show.
In addition, Duffany has 15 convictions in state court, judicial records show, including two for third-degree burglary. It is a violation of federal law for a person previously convicted of a felony to have a gun or ammunition that has moved in interstate or foreign commerce, according to the release.
The gun and drug case is being investigated by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and the Newington Police Department, with help from Connecticut State Police and the
Willimantic Police Department, the release said.
The case is being prosecuted
by Assistant U.S. Attorney Robert S. Dearington.