Department of Justice

HAMMOND- Terrence McCray, 22 years old, of East Chicago, Indiana, was sentenced by United States District Court Judge Philip P. Simon on his plea of guilty to conspiracy to make false statements to a federally licensed firearms dealers in connection with the acquisition of multiple firearms, announced United States Attorney Clifford D. Johnson.

McCray was sentenced to 24 months in prison followed by 2 years of supervised release.

According to documents in the case, in 2019, McCray conspired with three other persons to straw purchase 17 firearms on 14 occasions.  In each of the transactions, a buyer falsely certified on the federal forms that he/she was the actual buyer of the firearms.  However, the buyer was really making the purchase of the firearms for McCray, who had selected and provided the funds for the purchase of the firearms.             

This case was investigated by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives and was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorneys Kevin F. Wolff and Michael J. Toth.      

This case was prosecuted as part of the joint federal, state, and local Project Safe Neighborhoods (PSN) Program, the centerpiece of the Department of Justice’s violent crime reduction efforts.  PSN is an evidence-based program proven to be effective at reducing violent crime.  Through PSN, a broad spectrum of stakeholders work together to identify the most pressing violent crime problems in the community and develop comprehensive solutions to address them.  As part of this strategy, PSN focuses enforcement efforts on the most violent offenders and partners with locally based prevention and reentry programs for lasting reductions in crime.

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