The man convicted of transporting a Taurus .45-caliber, semiautomatic handgun used in the 2008 killing of Philadelphia Police Sgt. Patrick McDonald was sentenced by a federal judge today to 102 months in federal prison.
Stephen Lashley, 35, was found guilty last month of illegally transporting three firearms and possession of a firearm by a convicted felon.
Lashley, who has been incarcerated since May 2009, had been convicted of similar charges in December 2009 and was sentenced in March 2010 to 10 years in a federal lockup.
But a U.S. Court of Appeals here reversed the conviction last year and sent the case back to U.S. District Judge Michael Baylson for a new trial.
Prosecutors said Lashley had hired John Mack to purchase the weapon used in Sgt. McDonald's killing in South Carolina and a second handgun and then carried them to Philadelphia between November 2006 and June 2007. (Lashley was unable to purchase the guns legally because of a prior felony drug conviction.)
On September 23, 2008, another man, Daneel Giddings, used the Taurus handgun to shoot McDonald multiple times after a traffic stop in North Philadelphia.
Giddings later was killed in a shootout with cops who responded to the scene.
Defense attorney Caroline Goldner Cinquanto had assailed the credibility of Mack at trial said there was no evidence linking Lashley to Giddings.
But Assistant U.S. Attorney Joseph A. LaBar said that although Lashley "did not pull the trigger" of the gun that killed Sgt. McDonald he "shared responsibility" for the murder because he "brought the murder weapon" here.
Advisory sentencing guidelines called for a sentence of 63 to 78 months.
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