Montco man gets prison for selling stolen guns
A Lansdale man was sentenced to 71/2 to 18 years in prison Wednesday for stealing 12 guns from Montgomery County gun shops and selling them on the street last year.
A Lansdale man was sentenced to 71/2 to 18 years in prison Wednesday for stealing 12 guns from Montgomery County gun shops and selling them on the street last year.
But as Andrew Joseph Rocco begins his prison sentence, only two of the guns he stole have been recovered. The case demonstrates the difficulty police face in tracking straw purchases.
"This case isn't over yet," Assistant District Attorney Rebecca Geiser said at the sentencing in Montgomery County Court. "There are still 10 firearms out there that haven't been recovered."
Rocco, 34, was arrested last November after one of the guns was used in a Norristown shooting. Police said a man fired it through the window of his ex-girlfriend's home, narrowly missing an 8-year-old child. One other gun was surrendered to police by "a concerned party," police said.
With the help of informants, straw purchasers, and law enforcement officials throughout the county and beyond, investigators traced Rocco to the theft of the firearms from stores in Hatfield and Lansdale last summer.
He pleaded guilty in May to charges of burglary, theft, and illegally selling firearms.
"Stealing guns and selling them illegally on the street will not be tolerated," said Judge William R. Carpenter.
Defense attorney Henry Hilles III said Rocco stole the guns to fuel his drug addiction, but is now committed to changing his life.
"Clearly this is a young man who became addicted to drugs and whose life spiraled out of control," Hilles said.
Geiser argued that cases such as Rocco's are "exactly why" legislators passed a minimum sentence for illegal gun sales. Rocco was the first Montgomery County man sentenced under the "Brad Fox Law," named in honor of a Montgomery County police officer killed in the line of duty.
The law requires a five-year minimum sentence for buying or selling firearms in straw purchase cases. Straw purchases are a rare topic upon which conservatives and liberals agree that tougher legislation will prevent guns from falling into criminal hands.
Fox, a Plymouth Township officer, was killed in 2012 by Andrew Thomas, a felon who purchased guns from drug addict Michael Henry.
Fox's family is suing the gun store involved, alleging it was negligent for not flagging Henry as a straw purchaser. Although the civil suit is moving forward in Common Pleas Court, similar cases elsewhere in the United States have typically failed.
Rocco was also sentenced Wednesday to at least 30 years of probation for other break-ins and thefts. He stole repeatedly to fuel his drug habit.
"I realize the bottom line is, I messed up. Big time," Rocco said in court.
After he was led out of the courtroom in handcuffs, Geiser addressed the other 10 guns Rocco put on the streets.
"We're still trying to track them down," she said.
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