A New York man indicted 13 months ago by a federal grand jury was found guilty of weapons and trafficking charges Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Bangor in connection with an incident two years ago when he fired a gun in a Walmart parking lot in Augusta.
Reginald McBride had been charged with being a prohibited person in possession of a firearm, possession with intent to distribute heroin and “carrying and discharging a firearm during, in relation to, and in furtherance of a drug trafficking crime.”
McBride was one of four people arrested in June 2016 after shots were fired at the Augusta Walmart two armed bystanders broke up the exchange of gunfire.
At the time, police said two of the four people arrested had fired guns at each other during a dispute in the Walmart parking lot. Police said the incident was a dispute over drugs and money.
The federal indictment said McBride fired a pistol to further the drug deal.
Court records indicated he previously had been convicted of three felony charges in Virginia and one in New York.
Jeffrey Silverstein, McBride’s attorney, said on the third charge, the jury convicted McBride of carrying a weapon but not of discharging it.
Had he been convicted of the all the elements in that charge, he would have faced an additional mandatory 10-year sentence. Now his potential sentence would be reduced by five years, Silverstein said.
On his conviction for possession of a firearm by a prohibited person, McBride could be sentenced to not more than 10 years a $250,000 fine or both. On the possession with intent to distribute heroin conviction, he could be sentenced to not more than 20 years, a $1 million fine, or both.
Sentencing is expected to take place this summer.
The federal charges came after McBride, of New York City’s Harlem district, was indicted in September 2016 at the state level on charges of attempted murder, aggravated trafficking in scheduled drugs, reckless conduct with a firearm, and four counts of possession of a firearm by a prohibited person.
Pamela Ames, McBride’s attorney on the state charges, said his state charges will continue until the federal charges are resolved.
Court papers show that McBride has a variety of aliases, including Kweasia McBride, Anthony Walker and Sunny.
They also show he has listed a variety of ages. According to the date of birth provided by Ames, McBride is 47.
A year ago, Frankie DeJesus, of Rochester, received a two-year deferred disposition after pleading guilty to a charge of reckless conduct with a dangerous weapon. The special conditions of his deferred disposition require that he depart Maine and return only for meeting with his attorney or for court proceedings.
At the same time, Samantha E. Tupper, of Augusta, pleaded no contest to a charge of hindering the apprehension or prosecution of McBride, a co-defendant in the case. Police said Tupper drove McBride away from the scene.
Tupper was sentenced to five months in jail, a term that is to run concurrently with a nine-month probation revocation. At the time of the incident in the Walmart parking lot, Tupper was on probation on a conviction for unlawful furnishing of scheduled drugs. In exchange for her plea a charge of unlawful furnishing of scheduled drugs dated June 26, 2016, against her was dismissed, as was a charge of trafficking in prison contraband from an incident July 6, 2016, at the jail in Augusta, when she was allegedly in possession of a syringe.
A fourth person charged after the parking lot incident, Diana M. Davis, of Rochester, New York, who identified herself in court as a sister of Dejesus, pleaded no contest to an assault charge Dec. 7, 2016, and was sentenced to 100 days in jail and given credit for time served, and a $300 fine was suspended.
Jessica Lowell — 621-5632
Twitter: @JLowellKJ
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