Boston Man Gets Prison for Weapons Conspiracy

WORCESTER– A Boston man was sentenced on Friday in federal court to more than four years in prison in connection with the sale of machine guns and handguns stolen from the U.S. Army Reserve Center in Worcester in 2015, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office.

U.S. District Court Judge Timothy S. Hillman sentenced Tyrone James, 29, of Dorchester, to to 57 months in prison followed by 36 months of supervised release. In January 2016, James and two co-defendants, Ashley Bigsbee and James Morales, were indicted for conspiracy to possess, store and sell stolen firearms; possession and sale of stolen firearms; and lying to federal agents.

James was also charged with being a felon in possession of firearms. In December 2016, James pleaded guilty to all charges.

On the night of Nov. 14, 2015, co-defendant James Morales allegedly broke into a weapons vault inside the Lincoln Stoddard United States Army Reserve Center in Worcester and stole six M-4 Carbines and ten M-11 semi-automatic handguns. The M-4 Carbine is a military weapon capable of firing a three bullet “burst” for each single pull of the trigger, which classifies it as a machine gun under federal law.

The following morning, Morales visited Bigsbee and James at their home in Dorchester and allegedly proposed that they assist him with selling a number of the weapons he had stolen and they agreed to do so.

Bigsbee and James then contacted numerous individuals via text message allegedly offering to sell the firearms for well below the market and street value. Bigsbee and James’s phones were later found to contain text messages allegedly showing these efforts along with photographs which depicted: the stolen weapons lying on the kitchen table of their Dorchester apartment; Bigsbee holding one of the stolen M-11 handguns; and two of the stolen M-11 handguns lying on their bed.

Through their efforts, Bigsbee and James allegedly arranged for Morales to sell a number of the handguns, and conducted the sales in their apartment on Nov. 15, 2015. In exchange for their assistance with selling the stolen weapons, Morales gave James and Bigsbee one of the M-4 Carbines.

On the night of Nov. 15, 2015, or soon after, Bigsbee and/or James allegedly put the weapon in a duffle bag and brought it to the home of an acquaintance on Kingsdale Street in Dorchester who agreed to store the duffle bag. That weapon was later recovered by federal agents on Nov. 27, 2015 outside of the acquaintance’s residence in connection with the arrest of Bigsbee.

During an interview on Nov. 20, 2015, James repeatedly lied to federal agents concerning his knowledge of the sale of the firearms.And at the time of this offense, James had been previously convicted of three counts of armed robbery and one count of armed assault in a dwelling making him a felon in possession of those weapons.

On March 15, 2017, co-defendant Bigsbee was sentenced to 21 months in prison. James Morales is scheduled for trial on April 18, 2017.