A fourth man was arrested last week in Memphis in connection with a series of wintertime break-ins of trucks parked overnight at truck stops in Crittenden, St. Francis and Miller counties in Arkansas.
The July 15 arrest of Gerry McDuffie was revealed in documents transferred Tuesday to federal court in Little Rock from officials in Tennessee, where McDuffie was arraigned after his arrest. As a result, a superseding indictment handed up April 8 was unsealed, revealing McDuffie as the man previously identified only as "Sealed 4."
McDuffie, like three other Memphis men who have been arrested in the case since March, is charged with conspiring to receive, possess, conceal, store, barter, sell and dispose of stolen firearms, which were moved in interstate commerce.
The indictment lists 107 guns -- 93 handguns, 12 rifles and two .12-gauge shotguns -- valued at $39,265 as being stolen Jan. 11 from a semitrailer parked off Interstate 55 in Mississippi County that was transporting the weapons from a Gander Mountain distribution center in Indiana to two of the chain's stores in Texas.
The others charged are Curtis Earl Evans Jr., who pleaded guilty June 4 to possessing and selling at least one of the guns; Mario Marquell Ward, who pleaded guilty May 14 to the same charge; and Markeith Deshun Thomas, who is set for trial Oct. 13 before U.S. District Judge Leon Holmes.
Federal prosecutors say that from Dec. 14 through February, more than 80 big rigs were broken into while parked overnight at rest areas or truck stops along Interstates 55 and 40. Including the guns that were being delivered to Gander Mountain stores, the thieves took more than $170,000 worth of property, including food products, bicycles, computers and tires.
Metro on 07/23/2015