PORT JERVIS, NY – A Port Jervis man, Steven Velez, a/k/a “Shooter”, 31, pled guilty in Orange County Court to Criminal Possession of a Weapon in the Second Degree. Under a plea agreement announced on the record at the time that Velez pled guilty, the District Attorney’s Office will recommend that he serve six years in state prison and five years of post-release supervision when he is sentenced on June 10, 2022.
“After a months-long narcotics investigation, on June 8, 2021, Port Jervis City Police and the Orange County Sheriff’s Office Special Operations Group executed warrants at two apartments located at the Port Jervis Townhouses at 111 Ryan Street in the City’s 3rd Ward. There, the police recovered a loaded, illegal 40 caliber High Point assault rifle that also had an illegal collapsible stock and pistol grip and forward hand grip. Also recovered at the locations were quantities of narcotics and another illegal handgun. At the time of the plea, Velez admitted that he possessed the illegal assault rifle,” the D.A.’s Office said.
“We cannot tolerate the possession and use of illegal firearms that so often go hand-in-hand with the narcotics trade,” said District Attorney Hoovler. “The streets of the City of Port Jervis are safer now with these weapons out of the hands of this defendant. I commend the dedicated work of the police investigators in this case who saw to it that guns such as these cannot be used to harm other people.”