GOSHEN – Orange County District Attorney David Hoovler Thursday said his office is going to redouble its efforts in the new year to prosecute illegal handgun and weapons possession.
His new gun prosecution initiative includes all available technology including fingerprints and DNA analysis, among other efforts.
“Obtaining video surveillance, whether it be private or from government agencies, facial recognition technician technology where it’s useful, and using the NIBIN system – the National Integrated Ballistic Information Network – which tests any of the shell casings or projectiles fired from a gun or recovered from a gun to see if they have been used anywhere else,” he said. “The effort will also track the guns from their origin.
Hoovler said in 2022, his office prosecuted 99 defendants charged with criminal possession of a weapon, most of whom were sentenced to state prison.
He pointed to 28-year-old Corey Owens of Newburgh, who was sentenced to 15 years in prison for illegally possessing a loaded 9 mm semiautomatic pistol; Kaeshawn Kerr, 27, of Brooklyn, who got 12 years in prison for illegal gun possession; and 38-year-old Louis Dessources, of New Jersey, who was sentenced to 7 ½ years following his conviction for criminal possession of a weapon.
