March 7, 2003
Trenton,
NJ—Mercer County Prosecutor Daniel G. Giaquinto today announced that a
Superior Court Judge sentenced John H. Colvin, Jr., age 28, of the first block
of North Olden Avenue, Trenton, to a 5-year term of incarceration without the
possibility of parole for being a convicted felon in possession of a firearm.
Colvin was also sentenced to a 4-year prison term which will run
concurrent to the gun sentence for violating a condition of his probation
(possessing the firearm).
According to Giaquinto, on August 16, 2002, at approximately 3:00 a.m.,
Trenton Police Officers observed Colvin walking on East State Street with a
cellular telephone to his ear and holding a firearm in his right hand. After a brief foot chase, police officers apprehended Colvin
and recovered a fully-loaded Interarms .38 caliber revolver.
Colvin, who was on probation for possession of a controlled dangerous
substance with the intent to distribute, is barred from owning or possessing a
firearm by New Jersey law because of his drug offense conviction. Colvin also had a 1996 conviction for unlawful possession of
a firearm.
The prosecutor stated that Assistant Prosecutor Michelle Gasparian of his
office’s Project Safe Neighborhoods Unit handled Colvin’s case.
“John Colvin will be off of the streets for five years because of his
flagrant disregard of this State’s firearms laws.
Through our Project Safe Neighborhoods Unit, we were able to
expeditiously indict, secure a guilty plea and sentence Mr. Colvin,” Giaquinto
said.
The prosecutor noted that Colvin was sentenced under a new provision of
New Jersey’s convicted felon gun law which provides for a mandatory 5-year
jail sentence when a convicted felon possess a firearm.
“The added penalty in the convicted persons gun statute together with the increased federal and local attention to issue of gun crime will enhance public safety,” said Giaquinto.