A Chicago man will serve more than three years in prison after he pleaded guilty to helping buy 43 guns at shows in Crown Point and Indianapolis so they could then be sold to gang members in Chicago.
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A federal judge sentenced Winston Geralds, 25, to three years and one month in prison during a sentencing hearing Thursday at the U.S. District Court in Chicago.
According to court records, Geralds worked with David Lewisbey, of South Holland, Ill., to buy guns at shows in Crown Point and Indianapolis from independent dealers who sell from their own collections. These sellers do not have to file the regulations that other dealers do, such as checking a buyer’s history. Instead, they just have to verify that a buyer lives in Indiana.
Federal attorneys said in court records that Lewisbey used a forged signature to get an Indiana driver’s license, which allowed him to buy from these sellers.
Geralds’ indictment lists just two days — April 21-22, 2012 — that they did this, but federal attorneys say in other court records that Lewisbey ran this scheme for four years.
After buying the guns, Geralds and Lewisbey then transported them to Illinois, where they used others to sell them in off-the-books transactions to people in Chicago. The government says that Lewisbey charged 400 percent of what he originally paid for the guns and that people paid in cash.
Federal attorneys noted in one filing that 2012 was a particularly violent year for Chicago, with guns involved in 435 deaths in the city.
“(Lewisbey’s) entire business model depended on the staggering amount of violent acts being committed in Chicago by dangerous individuals who should not be able to get their hands on a weapon,” federal attorneys wrote in one filing.
Lewisbey, who was found guilty after a federal trial, is serving a 16-year sentence.
Several Lake County officials, including Sheriff John Buncich, announced in 2013 that they would focus on these gun shows, which normally run at the Lake County Fairgrounds, and the undocumented sales that took place.