Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, January 24, 1992 TAG: 9201240409
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-8 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: VICTORIA RATCLIFF STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
BUYER OF TEEN'S GUN GIVEN JAIL TERM
A 42-year-old Roanoke man was sentenced Thursday in U.S. District Court in Roanoke to eight months in jail for buying a gun for a teen-ager who was shot and killed in a Roanoke street battle last September.John Edward Divers pleaded guilty in November to buying a "Bushmaster" .223-caliber semiautomatic rifle for Anthony Lamont Kasey in a Vinton gun store two days before Kasey, 19, was killed in a shootout with three armed youths. Kasey had the Bushmaster with him at the time he was shot.
Judge James Turk sentenced Divers to eight months each on charges of illegally buying the rifle for Kasey, who was a convicted felon, and for conspiring to violate gun laws. The sentences, which were the maximum Divers could receive under federal sentencing guidelines, will run concurrently, according to Assistant U.S. Attorney Don Wolthuis.
Because he was a convicted felon and therefore prohibited from buying or possessing firearms, Kasey asked his friend Divers to buy the rifle for him, according to testimony at Divers' November plea. Scott Fairburn, an agent with the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, testified then that Kasey and Divers had a relationship based on a "triangle" involving guns and drugs. Divers bought firearms for Kasey in exchange for money or drugs, Fairburn said. The guns were sold out of state - primarily in New York and New Jersey - in exchange for drugs. The drugs in turn were brought back to Roanoke for sale, he said.
From April 1990 until days before Kasey's death, Divers helped buy at least 14 firearms, mostly .38-caliber semiautomatic pistols, for Kasey, Fairburn testified. Initially, Kasey was not eligible to buy the firearms solely because of his age, Fairburn said.
Under federal law, people must be 18 to purchase rifles and shotguns and 21 to purchase handguns.
But by August 1990, Kasey, then 19, was a felon, having been convicted in New Jersey of carrying concealed deadly weapons. Kasey and four companions were riding in a rental car in Warren, N.J., when they were arrested with five guns in the trunk of the car. The guns were traced back to Divers, Fairburn said.