BALTIMORE COUNTY MAN CONVICTED
OF ILLEGALLY POSSESSING MACHINE GUN AND
SHORT-BARRELED SHOTGUN

Attorney General J. Joseph Curran, Jr. announced today that David Martin Smith, 49, of 2142 Riding Crop Way, Baltimore County, was found guilty by a jury sitting in the Circuit Court for Howard County of two counts of Possession of a Machine Gun for Aggressive Purpose, and one count of Illegal Possession of a Short-Barreled Shotgun.

The Honorable Diane O. Leasure presided over the trial, and ordered a pre-sentence investigation of Smith be completed prior to his sentencing on January 10, 2003. While awaiting sentencing, Judge Leasure granted the State’s request to place Morgan on pre-sentence supervision. The potential maximum penalty faced by Smith for being convicted of Possession of a Machine Gun for Aggressive Purpose is 10 years incarceration, and the maximum penalty for possessing a short-barreled shotgun is five years incarceration and a $5,000 fine.

According to testimony introduced at trial, the Baltimore County Police Department had arrested a man for attempted 2nd degree murder in late November. During a debriefing of him, the man said a guy named "Dave" was offering to sell fully automatic weapons for money or drugs. He said "Dave" would take legal weapons and modify them into machine guns. Baltimore County Police ultimately obtained a search warrant for David Smith's apartment in Reisterstown, Baltimore County. When no guns were found, they confronted Smith and he admitted that the guns were in his parents house in Howard County. Upon arriving at his parents’ Ellicott City home, and with the parents’ consent, police entered the home and retrieved the weapons.

"This man posed a significant threat to countless people because of the weapons he was dealing and the people to whom he was giving them," Attorney General Curran said. "I am proud of the joint effort by area law enforcement and this Office and confident that lives have been preserved by this action."

This case was investigated by the Baltimore County’s Firearms Violence Team and was prosecuted by the Office of the Attorney General, Firearms Trafficking Unit, Criminal Investigations Division. Funding for Operation Crime Gun comes from a grants received from the Governor’s Office on Crime Control and Prevention, and the Maryland State Police Cease Fire Council.

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