Monday, April 01, 2019

Lancaster County Man Pleads Guilty to Federal Court to Illegally Possessing a Gun


Columbia, South Carolina ---- United States Attorney Sherri A. Lydon announced today that Deangelo Raheem Roseboro, age 25, of Lancaster, South Carolina, entered a guilty plea in federal court to possession of a firearm by a person who had been convicted of a crime punishable by imprisonment for a year.  United States District Judge J. Michelle Childs of Columbia accepted the guilty plea and will impose sentence after she has received and reviewed a presentence report prepared by the United States Probation Office.

Evidence presented to the court established that on December 6, 2017, a Lancaster County deputy made a routine traffic stop on a vehicle driven by Roseboro.   As the deputy approached the vehicle, he saw Roseboro reaching in the floor board of the passenger side of the vehicle.  The deputy asked Roseboro for his driver’s license, insurance, and registration.  Roseboro stated the car belonged to his uncle and that he only had a driver’s permit, which he did not have with him.  The deputy told Roseboro that he smelled marijuana and asked why he was reaching into the floorboard of the vehicle. Roseboro told the deputy that there was no marijuana in the car but that there was a gun in the car that belonged to his uncle.  As the deputy tried to get Roseboro out of the car to detain him, Roseboro ran away.  After a brief search, Roseboro was found hiding in a friend’s apartment.  Deputies searched the vehicle and found a fully loaded SCCY, model CPX-1, 9mm pistol.   Federal law prohibits Roseboro from possessing firearms and ammunition based on a previous conviction for his involvement in the murder of a Chester City councilman.

Roseboro faces a maximum penalty of 10 years in federal prison and/or a fine of $250,000.

The case was investigated by agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Lancaster County Sheriff's Office and was prosecuted as part of the joint federal, state, and local Project CeaseFire initiative, which aggressively prosecutes firearm cases. Project CeaseFire is South Carolina’s implementation of Project Safe Neighborhoods (PSN), the centerpiece of the Department of Justice’s violent crime reduction efforts.  PSN is an evidence-based program proven to be effective at reducing violent crime. Through PSN, a broad spectrum of stakeholders work together to identify the most pressing violent crime problems in the community and develop comprehensive solutions to address them. As part of this strategy, PSN focuses enforcement efforts on the most violent offenders and partners with locally based prevention and reentry programs for lasting reductions in crime.

Assistant United States Attorney William K. Witherspoon of the Columbia office is prosecuting the case.

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