Hartford man gets 4 1/2 years for illegally having gun in East Hartford
Nov. 24—A man who was suspected of involvement in a shooting at an East Hartford house accepted a plea bargain this week in which he wasn't convicted in that incident but was convicted of criminal possession of a gun that police found with him in a car while investigating the shooting.
Lionell Tyrone Keith Jr., 22, of Hartford was sentenced Monday in Hartford Superior Court to 4 1/2 years in prison for the criminal firearm possession, online court records show. He will be on probation for three years after he completes the prison time, facing up to 5 1/2 more years in prison if he violates release conditions.
Keith was on probation for a first-degree robbery committed in Hartford in 2015 when East Hartford police caught him with the gun on April 23, 2020. He admitted in his plea bargain Monday that he had violated probation conditions in the old robbery case for the third time, but he got no additional prison time for the violation, court records show.
East Hartford police never believed that Keith or Christine Nicole Kincman, who was with him in the car, fired the shots at the house on Columbus Street, which were reported shortly before 11:30 that night.
Police charged Keith and Kincman, who is in her early 20s and has listed her address as an apartment at 81 Orchard St. in Vernon, with conspiring to commit three misdemeanors in the shooting — first-degree reckless endangerment, unlawful discharge of a firearm, and second-degree breach of peace.
Keith wasn't convicted of any of those charges in his plea bargain.
GUN SENTENCE
DEFENDANT: LIONELL TYRONE KEITH JR., 22, OF HARTFORD.
CONVICTIONS: CRIMINAL POSSESSION OF A FIREARM, VIOLATING PROBATION FOR THE THIRD TIME IN AN OLD FIRST-DEGREE ROBBERY CASE.
SENTENCE: 10 YEARS IN PRISON, SUSPENDED AFTER 4 1/2 YEARS, THREE YEARS' PROBATION.
But during the investigation of the shooting, East Hartford police Officer Lawrence W. Henrickson stopped the car in which Keith was a passenger near Alumni Park on Main Street.
Police found a gun loaded with 9mm rounds, with its serial number scratched off, under the car's front passenger seat, where Keith had been sitting, Henrickson reported. The officer said Keith urged police to test his hands for gunshot residue.
Five spent 9mm shell casings were found on Columbus Street. But Shaw reported that the gun found in the car with Keith and Kincman appeared not to have been fired.
Kincman denied to police that she or Keith had anything to do with the shooting, which she said must have been committed by another man, who she said was angry at the victim for making "nasty comments" to a woman, the officer reported.
Keith was convicted in Monday's plea bargain of criminal possession of a firearm because he couldn't legally possess a gun due to his 2015 robbery conviction.
Kincman is still facing felony charges of first-degree threatening and two gun counts, as well as the misdemeanor charges stemming from the shooting, in Manchester Superior Court. She is free on $75,000 bond and is due back in court Dec. 3, online court records show.
Keith was held in lieu of high bond from the time of his arrest on the night of the shooting until his conviction Monday. That time, about 19 months, will be credited against his sentence.
Because criminal possession of a firearm is considered a nonviolent crime, Keith will be eligible for parole after serving half of his 4 1/2 year prison sentence, about eight months from now.
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