SYRACUSE (AP) -- A man convicted of trafficking in illegal handguns between Ohio and central New York was sentenced to 143 years in state prison.
Onondaga County Judge William Walsh imposed a series of consecutive sentences for a long list of charges against Shawndell Everson of Syracuse on Wednesday. Walsh said there tends to be at least one shooting a week in the city and one gun-related homicide a month.
The Syracuse Post-Standard reports that one of the guns involved in the case against Everson was recovered from the hand of a Syracuse man shot dead during an exchange of gunfire with police in November 2009.
Prosecutors say Everson's organization was responsible for bringing into Syracuse 50 or more guns a year and several hundred over the past several years.
Everson claimed the prosecution was out to get him because he had successfully challenged a prior conviction based on allegations of racial bias by a judge.
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