Whitehall’s Shane Smith Sentenced for Illegal Firearms

ALBANY, NEW YORK – The grim reaper of justice has descended upon Shane Smith, 24, a resident of Whitehall, New York. Today’s sentence echoes the streets with the sound of law enforcement’s resolve as Smith was sentenced to 41 months in the clink for his audacious crime: unlawfully possessing two short-barrel rifles and hundreds of rounds of ammunition.

United States Attorney Carla B. Freedman, Janeen DiGuiseppi of the FBI Albany Field Office, and John B. DeVito of the ATF New York Field Division stood together in solidarity as they announced Smith’s demise in the criminal underworld.

The case against Smith began to unfurl on September 16, 2016, when he was convicted in the Northern District of New York for the heinous felony of unlawfully possessing a machine gun. After serving his time, Smith thought life had let him off the hook. But fate has its own way of closing doors, and it did so again in April 2018 when U.S. Probation Officers searched his residence.

What they found was a arsenal of illegal arms: two rifles with barrels shorter than 16 inches and scores of rounds of ammunition that violated Smith’s rights as a felon. This latest betrayal of the law has now earned him an additional 41 months in prison and three years of supervised release.

The relentless pursuit of justice was carried out by the United States Probation Office for the Northern District of New York, the FBI, and the ATF. Assistant U.S. Attorney Rick Belliss was at the helm, leading the prosecution with unyielding determination.