Philly Man Pleads Guilty to Gun Straw Purchases as DA Keeps Heat On Illegal Gun Purchases

A Philadelphia man earlier this month pleaded guilty to making gun straw purchases as part of County wide effort to stifle illegal gun purchases.

Deon Hudson, according to court records agreed to plead guilty to 13 felony illegal gun related offenses on November 1.

Hudson was jailed when he was originally arrested last March.

When he was arrested in April, as part of  a joint operation by Detectives with the Bucks County District Attorney’s Office, the Office of Attorney General’s Gun Violence Task Force and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, he was charged with 39 felony counts.

In recent weeks, the DA’s office has announced arrests in two more illegal gun sales investigations.

Last Tuesday Leonard Truesdale, also of Philadelphia, was arrested and jailed on 21 felony counts related to the illegal sales of guns. The following day Bashir T. Shakir, of Upper Darby was found guilty of six counts of illegally giving firearms to other persons, and related offenses.

There were also the arrests of four men last week as part of a joint investigation with the  Montgomery County District Attorney’s office. 

In September Joseph “Joey” Scott, of Levittown was jailed as part of a drug and guns investigation conducted by by the Pennsylvania Attorney General’s Office, along with Middletown Township Police Department and the Philadelphia Police Department.

Philadelphia Police Department officials said two of the guns purchased by Hudson were part  two ongoing separate shooting investigations. Those firearms were recovered from teenagers in Philadelphia within 50 days of the date of purchase, an ATF agent testified at an April preliminary hearing.

Hudson’s sentencing was deferred to an as yet scheduled future date, according to online court records.

Illegal firearms purchases like the ones this prolific straw firearms purchaser has repeatedly made are often linked to other, violent, gun crimes  District Attorney Matt Weintraub who has said said publicly straw purchases are a main priority of his office.