A Gilbert man, Chris Oliver, was sentenced to 33 months in prison after pleading guilty to Dealing in Firearms Without a License.
Oliver was indicted for conspiracy to purchase firearms from Arizona gun stores using false statements in order to resell those firearms for profit. Oliver and his co-defendants, Dion Delpino, 24, of Gilbert, Arizona, Michael Troy Kelly, Jr., 24, of Tempe, Arizona, and Eric Roy Rathbun, II, 24, of Chandler, Arizona, were also charged with 76 instances of making a false statement during the purchase of firearms. All of Oliver’s co-conspirators have pleaded guilty to making false statements and are pending sentencing.
From July 2019 through November 2020, Oliver and his co-conspirators purchased at least 123 firearms for the purpose of selling them for a profit. Oliver then resold those firearms, mostly handguns, for a profit. Thirty of those handguns were recovered by law enforcement: 28 in or around Oakland, California, and two in the Phoenix metro area. Many of these firearms were recovered from prohibited possessors—persons who are legally prohibited from possessing firearms.
Six were recovered in six separate homicide investigations, including one incident in which Stockton (California) Police Officer Jimmy Arty Inn was murdered while responding to a domestic violence call. Oliver was a manager of this criminal enterprise: he directed his co-conspirators to purchase weapons on his behalf. Oliver, Kelly, and Delpino were first indicted in August 2021; additional counts against Oliver and Rathbun were added in May 2022.