Middletown Man Sentenced to 24 Months in Prison for Illegal Gun Sales

CINCINNATI — Joshua A. Huiet, 27, of Middletown was sentenced in U.S. District Court to 24 months imprisonment, followed by three years of court–supervised release for illegally selling six firearms in Cincinnati on three separate occasions to individuals he knew were not allowed to possess firearms because of their criminal history.

Carter M. Stewart, United States Attorney for the Southern District of Ohio, Robert J. Browning, Special Agent in Charge, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), and Cincinnati Police Chief James Craig announced the sentence imposed today by U.S. District Judge Michael A. Barrett.

The case against Huiet began in March 2011 when officers received information that Huiet was willing to sell firearms to individuals he knew were not allowed to possess the weapons due to being a prohibited person. On March 31, 2011, April 2, 2011, and April 4, 2011, the defendant sold firearms to an undercover task force officer. All six firearms were handguns.

“The unlicensed dealing in firearms facilitates criminal access to guns and can increase violent crime,” Cincinnati Branch Chief Anthony Springer wrote in a sentencing memorandum filed with the court. “The seriousness, the danger, the devastation to people and their families that can be caused by firearms untraceable to the possessor under these circumstances, hardly need be emphasized.”

Huiet pleaded guilty on January 13, 2012 to one count of dealing firearms without a license.

This case is the result of an ongoing investigation by the Cincinnati Violent Crime Enforcement Team (VCET), a task force of ATF agents, Cincinnati police officers, and a parole officer from the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Corrections, Adult Parole Authority (APA). The VCET Task Force’s primary mission is to investigate gun violence in Cincinnati and to target the illegal firearms traffickers as well as the “worst of the worst” of offenders illegally possessing firearms.

Huiet was also ordered to forfeit the firearms involved in the sale. The guns will either be destroyed or used for law enforcement training or other purposes.

Carter commended the cooperative investigation by VCET members, along with Cincinnati Branch Chief Anthony Springer, who prosecuted the case.