For Information Contact: Margaret T. Burns, State’s Attorney’s Office
Office (443) 984-1121 or Cell (443) 474-7479
Or
Sterling Clifford, Baltimore City
(443) 452- 9063
CITY MAN CHARGED UNDER CITY’S NEW
GUN OFFENDER REGISTRY ACT
Quentin Benjamin Adams, Convicted of Firearm
Possession, Allegedly Failed to Register as Gun Offender by Giving False
Address
Baltimore, MD – April 4, 2008 – Late
yesterday, city police arrested Quentin Benjamin Adams, 18, of the 1900 block
of Hillcrest Road and charged him with failing to register as a gun
offender. Adams allegedly provided a
false address during his required registration as a gun offender under the
City’s recently enacted Gun Offender Registry Act (GORA). Adams is being held
on $75,000 bail at Central Booking.
Mayor Sheila Dixon signed GORA
into law September 20, 2007 and it took effect on January 1, 2008. The city ordinance requires gun offenders to
register with the Police Department immediately upon sentencing and/or release
from imprisonment and every six months thereafter for three years. The Police Department through the Gun
Offender Monitoring Unit is charged with maintaining the registry and enforcing
compliance. A gun offender who violates
any of the provisions is guilty of a misdemeanor punishable by up to a year in
prison and/or a $1,000 fine. Each day
the violation continues constitutes a separate violation. The Act applies to every gun conviction in
Baltimore City.
On February 4, 2008 Adams pled guilty
in Baltimore Circuit Court to illegal possession of a CDS and illegal
possession of a firearm and Judge Emmanuel Brown sentenced him to four-years
suspend all but three-years, nine-months for the narcotics count and five-years
suspended for the firearm count. Adams was required to register as a gun
offender under GORA.
Court documents allege on March 11,
2008 Adams responded to the Gun Offender Registry Unit to register as a
convicted gun offender, giving police a Salisbury address. On March 31,
2008 detectives from the Gun Trace Task Force responded to that Salisbury
address and learned from a resident of the address that Adams never resided
there and a warrant was issued for his arrest April 1, 2008. Police
arrested him late yesterday and brought him to Central Booking.
A court commissioner ordered Adams
held on $75,000 bail and he is being held at the Baltimore City Detention
Center on that bail, awaiting a bail review hearing. A preliminary
hearing date has been set for May 5, 2008 in Wabash District Court.