A 34-year-old Port Jervis man is headed back to prison after parole officers searching his Sparrowbush home found two loaded handguns, one of them reportedly stolen and the other bearing an intentionally defaced serial number. Jesus Ramos pleaded guilty to second-degree criminal possession of a weapon and was sentenced in Orange County Court this week, on top of a prison term he'll also serve five years of post-release supervision.
According to Daily Voice, Ramos received his sentence in Orange County Court on Monday, Oct. 19. At the time of the July 7 search, he was under parole supervision tied to a previous felony conviction. Parole officers with the New York State Department of Corrections and Community Supervision descended on his residence on Route 42 in Sparrowbush, in the Town of Deerpark, around 11:34 p.m.
What Parole Officers Found Inside
Officers discovered two firearms along with magazines and ammunition during that nighttime search, the outlet's report states. The weapons included a loaded Glock Model 23 chambered in .40 caliber and a loaded Beretta G23 chambered in 9mm — both ready to fire, according to the same account.
One of the handguns had reportedly been stolen from North Carolina, while the other had an intentionally defaced serial number, per the Daily Voice report. That combination — a stolen weapon paired with one bearing an intentionally defaced serial number — points to the kind of under-the-radar firearm trafficking that investigators often flag as especially hard to trace back to its source.
Arrest, Charges and the Guilty Plea
Ramos was taken into custody on a parole warrant and remanded without bail following the discovery, according to News 12. That station reported the charges at the time included criminal possession of a weapon, criminal possession of a defaced firearm and possession of stolen property.
Ramos ultimately pleaded guilty to second-degree criminal possession of a weapon. The station's report on the arrest did not detail how each individual charge was resolved beyond that plea.
Sentencing and Supervision Ahead
Along with his prison sentence, Ramos was ordered to serve five years of post-release supervision once he's out, the Daily Voice account notes.
Cases involving parolees caught with illegal firearms aren't unique to Orange County. Federal prosecutors elsewhere have pursued similar violations; in Washington, D.C., a 33-year-old man named Rayvon Applewhite was sentenced to 26 months in federal prison for possessing a stolen, loaded 9mm Taurus pistol while on supervised release for three prior offenses, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office. Those federal cases differ from Ramos's state-level conviction, but they reflect the same underlying concern: supervised individuals caught armed with weapons they weren't permitted to have in the first place.
