Member of North Carolina gun ring tied to CT killing gets five years in prison
The gun trafficking investigation began when Middletown, Connecticut police ran a trace on a 9 mm pistol linked to a fatal shooting.
A member of a gun running ring that trafficked hundreds of illegal weapons into Connecticut and elsewhere in the northeast – including a weapon recovered during a murder investigation in Middletown – was sentenced Wednesday to five years in prison in North Carolina.
The ring leader and the man authorities said carried the weapons north for resale – Jacintre Holley of Middletown – was sentenced previously, in February, to 10 1/2 years in prison for his role in the crimes.
Sentenced Wednesday in North Carolina was Shyheim Williams, who had previously pleaded guilty to engaging in the business of dealing firearms without a license. Williams was convicted and sentenced along the four people in the gun trafficking scheme, including Holley.
Federal prosecutors said Holley bought more than 100 firearms from straw purchasers in North Carolina—including more than 70 from the three other members of the gun ring – Keshawn Squire, Jasnika Craig and Williams, all of North Carolina.
Prosecutor said Holley was placing orders for guns from other members of the ring and was traveling to North Carolina twice a month to pick them up. Ten of the weapons have since been recovered in separate criminal investigations in New Jersey and Connecticut, including the murder investigation in Middletown.
The gun trafficking investigation began when Middletown police ran a trace on a 9 mm pistol linked to a fatal shooting. The trace showed the weapon had been purchased by Squire from a North Carolina gun shop on May 10, 2021, six days before the murder in Middletown.
Five people were eventually charged in connection with the murder in Middletown of Tylon Hardy, 25, who was shot and killed the morning of May 16 when a confrontation boiled over into an exchange of gunfire outside a Stirling Court home.
Two years ago, Connecticut authorities charged Matthew O’Banner, 20, with Hardy’s murder after federal agents secretly tracked his mother’s car to a hideout in New Jersey after detectives learned his mother and girlfriend had allegedly conspired to cover up his involvement in the shooting, court records revealed in August.
The shootout began after a 21-year-old told O’Banner that he and several associates were “pulling up” to O’Banner’s house to fight over some kind of dispute between the men, according to previous court records.
The federal investigation in North Carolina showed that Squire bought at least 16 firearms in the five months between December 13, 2020, and May 29, 2021.
Surveillance camera video from Smokin’ Barrel Gun and Ammo in Raleigh, N.C., where Squire had purchased the Taurus, showed that he made a phone call from the store parking lot immediately after buying the firearm.
Call records revealed that he called a Connecticut phone number. By comparing phone records and data from a mobile payment application, investigators were able to link the Connecticut phone number to Holley. Other telephone records linked Holley and Squire to Williams and the fourth member of the ring, Jasnika Craig.
Prosecutors said Craig bought more than 20 firearm purchases in North Carolina beginning in 2020. One of them was found at a Connecticut crime scene five days after she bought it.
Police in Greenville, N.C. spotted Holley driving there in July 2021 and arrested him on an outstanding warrant. During a search of the car, police found a Glock 19 pistol with an extended magazine.
Prosecutors said the pistol had been modified to function as a fully automatic machine gun. Near the gun, police found 109 grams of cocaine, a digital scale with white residue, a Glock magazine, over $13,000, and a key to a room at a Quality Inn.
During a search of the hotel room, police found a Glock .40 caliber pistol. A trace of Glock .40 revealed that Jasnika Craig had purchased it.