Federal prosecutors have charged 12 people with conspiring to hide the identities of people who illegally acquired 34 firearms delivered through Jacksonville gun stores and pawn shops.
One of the accused, 25-year-old Talint Curtis, was already jailed on a murder charge from a failed 2022 burglary of a drug dealer when the indictment was handed down May 7. The indictment for the gun “straw-purchase” conspiracy, described as happening in 2023 and 2024, was initially sealed but has since been made public.
Nine of the 12 defendants have had court dates so far and pleaded not guilty, a court docket shows.
Why buyers’ identities would be hidden, and what the guns were intended for, are still under investigation, Assistant U.S. Attorney John Cannizzaro said after June 16 arraignments for defendants Skye Tiandra Gillespie, De’Ondre De’Shaun Jackson, Destiny Devine McClendon and Monica Sophear Phleuy.
Straw-buying happens when a person uses their own name to complete paperwork involved in buying a gun from a licensed dealer but turns the gun over to someone else.
Doing that undercuts laws written to keep guns out of the hands of people legally forbidden to have them, like those with felony convictions.
Straw buyers have been used to supply guns for drug rings like a group of pot dealers sentenced several months ago for drug-trafficking and for shooting into a car on Interstate 95 in St. Johns County.
But the new indictment is unusual both for the number of supposed straw-buyers involved and the relatively large number of guns.
That scope is reflected in a wire-fraud conspiracy charge that is a secondary part of the 12-count indictment.
The wire-fraud count accuses Curtis, McClendon and two others, D’Angelo Jose’ Encarnacion and Sh’Kise Anthony Spencer, of cheating an installment-payment app, Sezzle, by having straw buyers use it to buy $36,270 worth of guns.
Sezzle lets consumers break down payments into four installments and the indictment said only the first installment was ever paid, so the payment company was left on the hook for more than $25,000.
In total, the indictment describes purchases of 30 Glock pistols, two Century Arms Micro Draco handguns, one Smith and Wesson pistol and a Springfield handgun.
According to the indictment, straw buyers ordered the guns from the website of a Minnesota-based outdoors business, Sportsman’s Guide, which had the guns delivered to gun or pawn shops that were federally licensed firearms dealers who required buyers to fill out standard federal forms.
The indictment says people making straw purchases were told what guns to order and were really buying for Curtis, Encarnacion and Spencer.
However, Encarnacion, 27, was also charged with making a false statement to a firearms dealer for completing a form saying he would be the real owner of three Glocks which the indictment says were bought for someone else.
The conspiracy charge against each of the 12 defendants can carry a sentence of up to 10 years behind bars.
The same potential sentence applies for making a false statement to a federally licensed firearms dealer, a charge that was made against Encarnacion, McClendon, Phleuy, Gillespie, Jackson, Deanna Shontell Wheeler, Kaneasha Janay Brown, Daysha Le Anna McClendon, Phe’lan Ayani Dixon and Zarriyn Alzono Cannon.
Wire fraud charges against Curtis, Encarnacion, Spencer and Destiny McClendon can carry sentences up to 20 years.
This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: Feds charge Florida murder suspect, others with ‘straw-buying’ 34 guns
Reporting by Steve Patterson, Jacksonville Florida Times-Union / Florida Times-Union
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
By Steve Patterson, Jacksonville Florida Times-Union | USA TODAY Network
