Star Tribune
Prison for all 3 men whose Snapchat gun ring sold ‘switches,’ ghost guns around the Twin Cities
A lengthy undercover federal investigation into a Snapchat-based gun ring selling illegal “switches” and ghost guns around the Twin Cities metro concluded this week with the third and final sentence from a trio of young men arrested last year.
U.S. District Judge Donovan Frank on Tuesday sentenced Kyrees Darius Johnson, 23, of Minneapolis, to nearly 8 years in prison to wrap up the case — by far the longest prison term given to any of the three charged and owing to Johnson’s lengthier criminal record.
According to court records, an investigator from the Central Minnesota Violent Offender Task Force notified the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) in March 2023 of a Snapchat group called “BLICCS&STICCS3″ that was suspected of being used to help traffic machine guns, other firearms and illicit drugs in the Twin Cities and outside the metro.
The investigator shared screenshots and videos of several people selling, promoting and operating machinegun conversion devices — also often called “switches” or “auto sears” and are used to convert semiautomatic firearms into fully automatic weapons. Undercover officers then carried out about six controlled buys with various members of the group between March and June 2023. These deals yielded eight conversion devices, a “ghost gun” and one Glock already equipped with a switch.
Also charged, and since sentenced, were Rafael Carter Wesley, 20, of Brooklyn Center, and Avont Akira Drayton, 21, of Burnsville. Frank sentenced Wesley to 14 months in prison last week, and imposed a 2-year sentence on Drayton in April. All three men will also be under supervised release for 3 years upon leaving prison. The three were first charged in September 2023 and each pleaded guilty to one count of unlawful possession of machine guns.
During one of the deals, Wesley arranged for undercover officers to meet Drayton to buy a 3D-printed drop-in machinegun conversion device for an AR-style rifle for $550. Drayton showed the undercover officers a video on his phone of himself shooting a gun with the drop-in device inserted. He commented to the officers that the drop-in made the firearm shoot “way too [expletive] fast.”
Johnson, who was sentenced this week, has been confined to a wheelchair since being shot 14 times during what prosecutors alleged to be an attempted carjacking in August 2023. Johnson’s attorney, Catherine Turner, described the altercation as a violent dispute between Johnson and another man linked to Johnson’s occasional girlfriend.
Turner said that Johnson first procured a gun after returning home from a prior prison stint for assault, and amid exposure to “sketchy strangers” in his girlfriend’s life and tumult surrounding his family.
“He felt that he was safer armed with weapons; the more guns he had, the safer he felt,” said Turner in a court memo. She added that his gun ownership introduced him to enthusiasts “with whom he went shooting and started trading and selling, providing him income.” But, she said, he made most of his money from street racing and modifying cars.
Johnson’s criminal history includes two felony drug convictions, a gross misdemeanor for carrying a pistol without a permit after brandishing a firearm during a public altercation, second-degree assault for chasing down his ex-girlfriend’s car and ramming it with his own, fleeing a police officer. Before the federal charges, Johnson also had pending felony cases included allegedly firing a gun into the air after street racing and one for aggravated robbery and carjacking related to his August 2023 shooting.
Wesley had no prior convictions but did have two pending felony cases involving his possession of a ghost gun and drugs. Drayton had been convicted of two gross misdemeanors: property damage in 2021 after pursuing a victim in his vehicle and ramming it twice. He was also convicted in 2022 for possessing a loaded gun without a permit.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Ruth Shnider countered in her own arguments to Frank that Johnson’s Snapchat posts were “not the actions of a young man merely curious about guns or concerned for his personal safety.”
“Johnson was a trafficker — he chose to support himself by selling guns and drugs — plain and simple,” Shnider wrote. “He knew that switches were a hot commodity, and he knew how to market and sell them throughout the state at the highest profit to himself.”
Star Tribune
Former Hubbard County official, school bus driver gets six-year sentence for sex crimes against students
A former Hubbard County commissioner and school bus driver was sentenced Friday to six years in prison for sex crimes involving minors.
Daniel J. Stacey, 60, was charged in April 2023 with criminal sexual conduct and electronic solicitation of a minor, both felonies, in Beltrami County District Court. He was then charged in November with nine additional felony counts related to criminal sexual contact with a minor.
Stacey pleaded guilty in June to four felony counts as part of a plea deal that dropped the remaining charges. His attorney, Joseph Tamburino, declined to comment Friday on the sentence, and officials with the Nevis school district did not immediately respond to requests seeking comment.
Stacey resigned from the Hubbard County Board in January 2023 and was placed on leave from his school bus job during an investigation by the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension (BCA) that began after the parent of a Nevis student filed a complaint.
In an email Friday, Hubbard County Administrator Jeffrey Cadwell said he had no comment other than that Stacey’s actions “did not occur within the course and scope of his duties with the County and the County was completely unaware of them.”
According to a criminal complaint, Stacey offered to mentor a 13-year-old male on his bus route. He brought the boy to his property, asked him to watch pornography and tried to touch him in a sexual manner, court documents state.
The boy told investigators that Stacey told him not to tell anyone, and helped him rehearse what to say about doing chores at his property. Investigators said they found footage showing times Stacey would deactivate the school bus camera when the boy was the only student left on the bus.
A second criminal complaint outlines similar allegations against Stacey with a minor who was 14 years old.
Star Tribune
Woman charged as investigation into attack on north Minneapolis homeless shelter continues
A 33-year-old woman has been charged with two felonies in connection with an attack on a north Minneapolis homeless shelter that forced 54 women and children to relocate last week.
Eureka D. Riser, 33, of Minneapolis, is charged with second-degree rioting with a dangerous weapon and first-degree damage to property, according to the Hennepin County Attorney’s Office. She was in custody Friday, a day after Minneapolis police confirmed her arrest.
Riser, also known as Eureka Willis, is alleged to have been in a group of at least three people who on Sept. 5 went to St. Anne’s Place, 2634 Russell Av. N., and threatened residents, smashing doors with a baseball bat.
Residents were forced to vacate the shelter, leaving it boarded with plywood and watched over by armed security. Building managers estimate that property damage amounts to more than $10,000, according to the county attorney’s office. Additional charges may be brought against others involved.
“This violent attack on some of our most vulnerable community members, unhoused women and children, in a place where they had gone to seek shelter and safety cannot be tolerated,” Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty said in a statement.
Hoang Murphy, the CEO of People Serving People, which operates the shelter, said earlier this week that the four-hour episode was the culmination of an argument between shelter residents and neighbors over street parking that started days earlier and spilled over into violence.
According to the criminal complaint, which cites surveillance footage, Riser allegedly swung a baseball bat against the shelter’s doors, shattering glass while residents were inside. Another member of the group pointed what appears to be a gun at the front door of the building, the complaint says.
Residents have since been relocated to a hotel for safety reasons, costing People Serving People $9,000 a night — a figure that Murphy called unsustainable.
A man who was shot and wounded by sheriff’s deputies in east-central Minnesota while resisting arrest received a six-month jail term Friday.
Leo H. Hacker, 71, was sentenced in Pine County District Court in connection with his guilty plea in two cases of assault, and obstructing and fleeing law enforcement in connection with his clashes with deputies in February 2023.
Hacker’s sentences will be served concurrently and includes Judge Jason Steffen setting aside a three-year sentence sought by the County Attorney’s Office. Steffen’s terms also include five years’ probation and community work service.
According to the charges in each case and related court documents:
On Feb. 21, deputies tried to pull over Hacker’s pickup truck on a gravel road about a mile from his Pine City home. As two deputies approached his vehicle, he drove toward them. Both deputies opened fire on Hacker and wounded him.
Hacker was wanted at the time on charges of second-degree assault and obstructing law enforcement in connection with allegations that he pointed a gun at a deputy outside his home on Feb. 14 and angrily defied orders to drop the weapon.
At one point, Hacker warned the deputies that if they did not leave, he would return with “something bigger,” the charges quoted him as saying.
The deputy was there to seize Hacker’s SUV stemming from a dispute over his unpaid attorney fees, the charges read. However, law enforcement outside the home “determined that based on the totality of circumstances, it was in the interest of safety to leave the scene at that time” and instead seek a warrant for Hacker’s arrest, the criminal complaint continued.
