Washington man found guilty in stolen gun trial
A jury has found a Washington man guilty of conspiring with two other people to steal firearms from a home on East Hallam Avenue.
That outcome – which resulted for Michael Jolly, 55, of North Main Street, in convictions on one count of conspiracy, six counts of receiving stolen property and one firearms violation – came late Friday afternoon, following a three-day proceeding before Washington County Judge Michael J. Lucas.
Attorney Joe Francis, who represented Jolly, contended the prosecution hadn’t shown evidence of his client’s involvement in the theft, saying at the beginning of the trial the case could be made against “anybody that runs within that very broad circle of criminals.”
The defense questioned in particular the testimony of a woman who said from the stand she stole two rifles, two shotguns and two handguns from a house where she was staying because Jolly offered to give her Suboxone – a narcotic painkiller often prescribed to treat opioid addiction – in exchange for them.
“There’s only one person who gave (the prosecution) the allegations to support the charges – Shavon Moze – the person with the most at stake,” Francis said in his closing argument.
Assistant District Attorney John Friedmann contended Moze’s testimony was credible.
“Shavon is admitting her own involvement in criminal activity, for which she will face punishment,” Friedmann said Monday. He said the verdict reflected jurors’ weighing of the evidence presented in the case. Theft charges against Moze are still pending.
Lucas set a sentencing hearing for Jan. 27 following a presentence investigation by the county adult probation office. Jolly is free on bond.
The case against Jolly stemmed from a May 11, 2015, incident. Two witnesses who’d been in an alley nearby testified they saw a white car pull up outside Robert Gatling’s house that day and Moze leave Gatling’s house, carrying what appeared to be guns in a blanket. One notified Gatling’s sister, Clara Harper, who called her brother at work.
Police charged Moze with theft. She initially denied taking the guns. In July 2015, the same day she was due in court for a preliminary hearing, she admitted to Washington Detective Daniel Rush she’d committed the theft and said she planned to give them to Jolly for drugs.
Police filed charges against Jolly following her confession. They also charged Leroy Henderson, 60, of Washington, with theft, receiving stolen property and a firearms violation.
Moze said on the stand she’d discovered earlier that day her Suboxone had been stolen.
When Gatling refused to call the police, she called Jolly, who soon picked her up in a jitney driven by Henderson while Gatling was at work.
The three drove to Jolly’s apartment. When they arrived, Jolly left his two companions there. Moze said Jolly took off in Henderson’s car “to get rid of the guns” at a relative’s house in Charleroi. Henderson said he thought Jolly was trying to trade drugs for money to pay the jitney fare.
But when Jolly returned, he compensated neither of his alleged accomplices, they said.
The guns haven’t been recovered. Rush testified that only one – whose serial number police found on a box in the house – has been entered into the National Crime Information Center, an electronic clearinghouse for law enforcement.
Jolly didn’t testify during the trial. Francis argued the prosecution hadn’t shown physical evidence the guns, which were never recovered, were stolen.
Friedmann said when Jolly was interviewed by Rush in the days after the theft, Jolly said Moze had come out of the house with a white bag – a statement similar to the one Moze gave to police at first and Henderson made on the stand.
Friedmann pointed out Jolly said Moze had the bag only when she left the house, even when asked about the allegation Moze had taken the guns.
“We know that there were guns taken. We know that Mike Jolly was there,” Friedmann said Monday.