
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: FRIDAY, July 20, 1990                   TAG: 9007200246
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: B-2   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: LESLIE TAYLOR STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

MAN RESENTENCED IN U.S. FIREARMS CASE

A Roanoke man who originally was given five years' probation on firearms charges was resentenced in U.S. District Court Thursday to 18 months in prison.

U.S. Judge James Turk said that while he had no choice but to resentence Thomas Allen Kelly, he stood by the sentence he imposed a year ago on the 36-year-old man.

"This court feels like Mr. Kelly was given an appropriate sentence when he was before this court before, but three judges in Richmond have decided otherwise," Turk said.

Last year, Assistant U.S. Attorney Tom Bondurant appealed the sentence to the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond, contending that Turk improperly deviated from the federal sentencing guidelines, which mandated an 18- to 24-month prison term for Kelly.

Turk had found that Kelly rendered substantial assistance to the government and that Kelly should not be incarcerated because of health problems resulting from a car accident.

"I claimed that Kelly did not render substantial assistance," Bondurant said. "He told some stuff that proved not to be right."

The 4th Circuit Court ruled that the only way Kelly could get credit for substantial assistance was if Bondurant filed a motion for it.

The appeals court sent the case back for resentencing. That has happened only once before in the Western District of Virginia since the federal sentencing guidelines went into effect in 1987, Bondurant said.

Kelly, convicted in 1981 on firearms charges, was charged in 1988 with possession of a firearm by a convicted felon. Authorities found guns, silencers, machine guns, pipe bombs and ammunition in Kelly's Northwest Roanoke home.

by CNB