Source: United States Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco Firearms and Explosives (ATF)
Tampa, FL – United States District Judge Kathryn K. Mizelle has sentenced James Patrick Sychowski (48, Tarpon Springs) to 12 years and 6 months in federal prison for possessing ammunition as a convicted felon. A federal jury found Sychowski guilty on December 6, 2024.
According to testimony and evidence presented at trial, on February 7, 2023, at his mother’s residence in Tarpon Springs, Sychowski armed himself with a loaded AR-15 “ghost gun” that he had built himself over the course of several months. Sychowski threatened to kill his mother and her husband and threatened to shoot at any police officers responding to the scene. When officers from the Tarpon Springs Police Department arrived, Sychowski fled and was later arrested in Clearwater. Officers discovered the AR-15 ghost gun on Sychowski’s bed in his room along with the construction materials and accessories Sychowski used to build the AR-15. Further investigation revealed that Sychowski had purchased the AR-15 components online and shipped them to the Tarpon Springs residence.
Bank statements, financial documents, and electronic evidence presented at trial corroborated Sychowski’s purchase of the ghost gun components and his purchase of PMC 5.56mm ammunition and a magazine from a local firearms store. Below is a photograph of the AR-15 ghost gun recovered from Sychowski’s phone.
Over the last 20 years, Sychowski was convicted in Florida of attempted murder of a law enforcement officer, aggravated assault, carjacking, various sex crimes involving children, and bank robbery. Sychowski had been released from the Florida Department of Corrections for fewer than 5 months when he began planning to assemble his “ghost gun” and load it with ammunition.
This case was investigated by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, the Tarpon Springs Police Department, the Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office, and the Pasco Sheriff’s Office. The case was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorneys David W.A. Chee and David J. Pardo.
This case is part of Project Safe Neighborhoods (PSN), a program bringing together all levels of law enforcement and the communities they serve to reduce violent crime and gun violence, and to make our neighborhoods safer for everyone. On May 26, 2021, the Department launched a violent crime reduction strategy strengthening PSN based on these core principles: fostering trust and legitimacy in our communities, supporting community-based organizations that help prevent violence from occurring in the first place, setting focused and strategic enforcement priorities, and measuring the results.