People v. JP

- The Defendant was charged with Gun Running, a non-probationable Class 1 felony in state court, which involved the sale of 3 weapons to an undercover federal ATF agent in an alleged joint federal-state prosecution. He was on felony probation for the possession of firearms at the time and faced re-sentencing to prison. Salvatore C. Miglore did not represent him on the first charge of which he was on probation at the time. The authorities had the 3 guns sold and the cash Defendant received; plus, the entire transaction was tape-recorded. The Defendant was facing a minimum term of incarceration in the Illinois Department of Corrections of 4 years to a maximum term of 15 years at 50% time on the new offense, plus a consecutive sentence on the first case. The issue raised was the validity of a federal over-hear and other evidentiary problems. The Defense filed a Motion for Supplemental Discovery, of which, the State failed to provide. Also, the Defense also issued subpoenas to the federal government, of which they did not comply. Therefore, the Defense filed a Motion in Limine to bar all the federal witnesses from testifying or producing any evidence; and thus, argued several pre-trial motions including a Motion to Dismiss the Indictment due to the United States Government’s failure to comply with Defendant’s subpoenas. The State court cannot compel a federal government agent to comply with a State subpoena; but, it can bar the evidence or dismiss the case as a sanction. On the date of trial/hearing on the matter, the State agreed to reduce the charge to “attempted gunrunning” and Defendant received 48 months probation plus 100 hours community service on both cases, without any prison time, which basically boiled down to simply the first sentence he had on the first conviction, because they both were to run concurrently. So, there was no additional punishment.