Acting Attorney General John J. Hoffman announced that a Trenton man was sentenced to state prison today for illegally selling a semi-automatic handgun during an undercover investigation by the New Jersey State Police.
Darryl Spears, 25, of Trenton, was sentenced to 15 years in state prison, including five years of parole ineligibility, by Superior Court Judge Andrew J. Smithson in Mercer County. Spears was convicted at trial on Nov. 18 of all counts against him in a state grand jury indictment charging him with unlawful possession of a firearm and possession of a firearm as a convicted felon – both second-degree offenses – as well as fourth-degree unlawful disposition of a firearm. The state presented testimony and evidence during the trial that on Aug. 29, 2012, during the course of an undercover investigation by the New Jersey State Police, Spears illegally sold a 9mm semi-automatic pistol for $500 on Ward Street in Trenton.
The charge of possession of a weapon as a convicted felon carries a mandatory period of parole ineligibility of five years. Spears had a prior conviction for aggravated assault. The state sought an extended-term sentence, which the judge imposed.
Spears was among more than 65 defendants indicted in 2013 by the Division of Criminal Justice in connection with nearly 100 illegal guns.
Those indictments stemmed from an ongoing statewide initiative launched by the Attorney General’s Office in 2012, in which the Division of Criminal Justice and the State Police are aggressively targeting gun violence through strategic investigations focused on seizing existing weapons in violent areas, disrupting weapons trafficking into those areas, and aggressively prosecuting criminals involved in the illegal sale and possession of guns.
Under TAG, which applies countywide, the Attorney General has mandated that prosecutors will make no plea offer that is less than a minimum 3 ½ years without parole to a “tagged” offender charged with unlawful possession of a gun. The Mercer County Prosecutor’s Office has charged 267 defendants under the TAG initiative.