Source: Office of United States Attorneys
David X. Sullivan, United States Attorney for the District of Connecticut, announced that a federal jury in Bridgeport today found MORRIS CARTER III, also known as “Mo,” 36, of Hartford, guilty of firearm offenses.
According to the evidence introduced during the trial, in the early morning of February 19, 2023, Carter was involved in a fight a convenience store in the south end of Hartford. Surveillance footage shows Carter possessing a firearm and beating a convenience store patron in the head with a firearm magazine, which ejected ammunition during the altercation. Carter then fled the store, drove toward Wethersfield, and threw two handguns out the car window. Wethersfield Police stopped the car on Nott Street and found a loaded magazine under the passenger seat. Later that morning, a Wethersfield resident called police after discovering one of the discarded guns at the end of her driveway. Officers responded and found both discarded firearms, a magazine, and ammunition in the area. Investigators also recovered the ammunition from the convenience store.
Carter’s criminal history includes a federal conviction in 2013 for conspiracy to distribute, and to possess with intent to distribute, crack cocaine. It is a violation of federal law for a person previously convicted of a felony offense to possess a firearm or ammunition that has moved in interstate or foreign commerce.
The jury found Carter guilty of one count of unlawful possession of a firearm by a felon, which carries a maximum term of imprisonment of 15 years, and one count of possession of a firearm with an obliterated serial number, which carries a maximum term of imprisonment of five years.
Carter, who was federal supervised release at this time of this offense, faces additional penalties for violating the conditions of his supervised release.
Carter has been detained since February 19, 2023.
This matter has been investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Hartford Police Department, and the Wethersfield Police Department. The case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Nathaniel J. Gentile and Sean P. Mahard through Project Safe Neighborhoods (“PSN”), a program bringing together all levels of law enforcement and the communities they serve to reduce gun violence and other violent crime, and to make our neighborhoods safer for everyone. For more information about Project Safe Neighborhoods, please visit www.justice.gov/psn.