Source: United States Attorneys General
Headline: Felon from Carlsbad Sentenced to Prison for Violating Federal Firearms Laws
ALBUQUERQUE – Paul Jay Harry, 33, of Carlsbad, N.M., was sentenced today in federal court in Las Cruces, N.M., to 57 months in prison for being a felon in possession of a firearm. Harry will be on supervised release for three years after completing his prison sentence.
Harry was arrested on Jan. 17, 2017, and was charged by criminal complaint with being a felon in possession of a firearm and ammunition and possession of a firearm not registered to him in the National Firearms Registration and Transfer Record (NFRTR) on May 2, 2016, in Chaves County, N.M. According to the complaint, Harry was arrested on an outstanding warrant for failing to comply with probation following a routine traffic stop. Law enforcement officers subsequently executed a state search warrant on Harry’s vehicle and seized a sawed off rifle, which was not registered to Harry in the NFRTR, ammunition and drug paraphernalia.
Harry was indicted on April 19, 2017, and was charged with being a felon in possession of a firearm. According to the indictment, Harry had a prior burglary conviction.
On May 25, 2017, Harry pled guilty to the indictment and admitted that on May 2, 2016, he possessed a short-barreled rifle. Harry further admitted that he could not legally possess firearms or ammunition because of his convictions in 2009 for vehicle burglary and forgery.
This case was investigated by the Las Cruces office of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and the Roswell Police Department. Assistant U.S. Attorney Brock E. Taylor of the U.S. Attorney’s Las Cruces Branch Office prosecuted the case.