A convicted felon who fired a gun on a Lower East Side street last November pleaded guilty to a federal firearm charge, and now a federal defender is asking a Manhattan judge for a time-served sentence while prosecutors are pushing for 21 months behind bars. The case, playing out in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, centers on a shooting near Ridge Street and Stanton Street on November 20, 2025.
According to Inner City Press, the case is captioned USA v. Agosto, 1:26-cr-45, and was set for sentencing on Wednesday before Judge Richard M. Berman. The defendant, previously convicted of drug dealing, was charged with being a felon in possession of a firearm after allegedly possessing and discharging the weapon on the Lower East Side street. He has since pleaded guilty to the firearm offense, the outlet reports.
Court filings described by the same outlet indicate the shooting happened in the early evening on a crowded Manhattan street. The confrontation unfolded near the intersection of Ridge and Stanton Streets on the Lower East Side.
Defense Says He Fired While Being Chased
The federal defender representing the man argued for leniency, telling the court that he was pursued through the streets of his own neighborhood in the moments before he fired the gun, per the report from Inner City Press. The defense also argued that his prior criminal record, tied to the drug dealing conviction, was stale by the time of the November shooting.
Those arguments formed the basis for the defense's request that the judge impose a sentence of time served rather than additional prison time. The U.S. Attorney's Office, however, pushed back with a request for a 21-month sentence, according to the same account.
Felon-in-possession charges under federal law can carry significant prison exposure depending on the specific statute and a defendant's criminal history. In an unrelated Massachusetts case, the U.S. Attorney's Office, District of Massachusetts has noted that a charge of being a felon in possession of ammunition can provide for a sentence of up to 15 years in prison and three years of supervised release, though that penalty structure applies to a different charge in a different case and is cited here only for context on how federal firearm statutes are generally structured.
The dispute over sentencing in the Agosto case reflects the wide gap that sometimes separates defense and prosecution asks in federal firearm cases, particularly when the underlying incident involves gunfire on a public street. Whether Judge Berman sided with the defense's push for time served or the government's request for 21 months in prison remains unknown based on the available record.
