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OAKLAND — A 34-year-old man pleaded guilty to being a felon in possession of a firearm, a U.S. Justice Department spokesman said.
In a criminal complaint unsealed Tuesday, Kristopher Sylvester said he possessed a Ruger .380 caliber handgun and eight rounds of .380 ammunition and a magazine on April 2, when Fremont police arrested him during an investigation into a March 26 commercial burglary at a Fremont car-rental business.
Sylvester also said that during an April 16 arrest in Santa Clara County that he had a Smith & Wesson SD8VE 9mm silver handgun with 11 rounds of 9mm Winchester ammunition, as well as a Ford Mustang that had been reported stolen from a San Jose car-rental site.
He also said that during a May 15 arrest in San Leandro related to a federal warrant from his April arrest that he had a Bishop Defense 9mm black handgun with 14 rounds of 9mm Luger ammunition and a magazine, and admitted that the Ruger and Smith & Wesson handguns had been made outside the state and that he was prohibited from firearms possession due to prior felony convictions.
Sylvester’s April arrest drew additional attention after he had been initially freed from custody by state judicial-council rules intended to limit pre-trial incarceration due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
He was charged on June 22 with a count of being a felon in possession of a firearm and ammunition and pleaded guilty.
Sylvester was in custody Tuesday at Santa Rita Jail, and faces a December 8 hearing before U.S. Superior Court Judge Jeffrey White in Oakland, where he faces penalties including up to 10 years in prison followed by three years’ supervised release and a $250,000 fine, but any court-imposed sentence must comply with federal guidelines and sentence-imposition rules.
Cooperating agencies, including the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, and Fremont, San Jose and Santa Clara police departments, led to the case, prosecuted by assistant U.S. Attorney Jonathan Lee.
Contact George Kelly at .
Source:: The Mercury News – Entertainment
