Department of Justice

TRENTON, N.J. – A Mercer County, New Jersey, man was sentenced today to 120 months in prison for being a felon in possession of a firearm, U.S. Attorney Craig Carpenito announced.

Rasheed McNair, 41, of Ewing, New Jersey, was previously convicted of being a felon in possession of a weapon following a two-day trial before U.S. District Judge Peter G. Sheridan in Trenton federal court. Judge Sheridan imposed the sentence by videoconference today.

According to documents filed in this case and the evidence at trial:

On Feb. 18, 2018, two Trenton Police detectives in the Street Crimes Unit were driving through the area of Oakland Street and Hoffman Avenue in Trenton when one of them observed McNair standing in an open doorway in a public housing complex and holding what was later identified as a Smith & Wesson .40 caliber semiautomatic handgun.

McNair tucked the handgun into his jacket and ran up the stairwell of the building. After giving chase, one of the detectives observed McNair remove the handgun from inside his jacket and attempt to hide it under a doormat in front of an apartment. The other detective retrieved the firearm from under the doormat and rendered it safe. The weapon was later found to be loaded with 11 rounds of ammunition in the magazine and one round in the chamber, and its serial number had been obliterated.

In addition to the prison term, Judge Sheridan sentenced McNair to three years of supervised release.

U.S. Attorney Carpenito credited the Trenton Police Department, under the direction of Police Director Sheilah A. Coley; and special agents of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, Trenton Field Office, under the direction of Special Agent in Charge Charlie J. Patterson in Newark, with the investigation leading to today’s sentencing.

The government is represented by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Elisa T. Wiygul and Michelle S. Gasparian of the U.S. Attorney’s Office’s Criminal Division in Trenton.

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