Two Mozart Street Gang Members Sentenced for Shooting Weapons at Firing Range

[Editor's note: The following is a press release from the Justice Department.]

Two men alleged to be associated with the Mozart Street Gang of
Jamaica Plain were sentenced Aug. 3 in federal court on firearms charges resulting from a December 2010 trip to a shooting range in Salisbury, Mass. where they rented three high powered firearms and shot nearly 500 rounds of ammunition at targets while on probation for prior convictions involving illegal firearms possession.

Jeffrey Medina, 20, was sentenced to 18 months in prison, and Sherwin Garcia, 21, was sentenced to 12 months in prison, each to be followed by three years of supervised release during which time each defendant will be restricted from certain parts of Jamaica Plain and from being with certain associates.

On Dec. 22, 2010, Medina and Garcia pleaded guilty to charges of being a felon-in-possession of firearms and ammunition. The sentences imposed Aug. 3 by U.S. District Judge Joseph L. Tauro will not begin until they have completed their current state sentences imposed for probation violations.

On Dec. 22, 2010 Medina, Garcia, Christian Green and a fourth man -
Eudy Victorino, traveled to Bob’s Tactical Shooting Range in Salisbury. At the time of the trip, both Medina and Garcia were on state probation for prior firearm offenses and Green (who is scheduled to be sentenced to be in September) was on probation for a state drug trafficking offense.

Notwithstanding their probationary status and prior felony convictions, the men rented three high-powered guns including a Smith & Wesson .50 caliber handgun (identified by Smith & Wesson as “the most powerful production revolver in the world today”), a Ruger 9-millimeter
pistol, and a Fabrique National Herstal Belgium 28 caliber rifle. They then proceeded to shoot at targets for nearly 90 minutes, using up nearly 500 rounds of ammunition, purchased at the range.

At the sentencing hearing, the government asserted that Medina and Garcia were associated with the Mozart Street Gang of Jamaica Plain and provided the court with an earlier detention affidavit and other materials describing the Mozart gang, its activities and identifying
22 incidents in the last six months of 2010 alone (including seven shootings and three stabbings) believed to be associated with Mozart Street and its longstanding dispute with rival gang associates from the Boylston Street area.

United States Attorney Carmen M. Ortiz; Guy Thomas, Special Agent in Charge of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives - Boston Field Division; Suffolk County District Attorney Daniel F. Conley; Boston Police Commissioner Edward Davis; and Salisbury Police Chief Richard Merrill Jr., made the announcement. The case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys in Ortiz’s Organized Crime Strike Force/Gang Unit.