|
|
|
A Chesterton man who fled to Mexico after being convicted in federal court on firearms charges and was later apprehended there has been sentenced to nine years in prison, the U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Indiana said. Robert Wainwright, 65--whose last known address was 1357 Morningside Drive--was sentenced to 108 months imprisonment, followed by two years of supervised release, on each of two convictions of being a felon in possession of firearms. Wainwright will serve the 108-month sentence concurrently. Wainwright was taken into custody on July 14 by Mexican federal police after more than six months in hiding there. He had been awaiting trial in Lake County Superior Court on a charge of discharging a pollutant into state waters when he absconded. In fact it was an investigation of suspected violations of the Clean Water Act by Wainwright’ s waste disposal business--Sterling Material Services in Lake County--which led to his indictment in federal court of being a felon in possession of a firearm, the Environmental Protection Agency has said, after investigators with the Northern Indiana Environmental Task Force executed a search warrant at his business in April 2007, in response to an allegation that Sterling Material Services had been disposing of slag and brick waste into an adjacent wetland without a permit from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.In that search investigators uncovered a number of weapons and ammunition, EPA said. A search warrant was later executed at Wainwright’s residence in Chesterton and more weapons and ammunition were uncovered there as well, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said. Firearms found at Wainwright’s business the U.S. Attorney’s Office said: a loaded semi-automatic pistol, an SKS 7.63 x 39 mm semi-automatic rifle, a 12-gauge shotgun, and in excess of 2,900 rounds of ammunition, including more than 2,800 rounds for the SKS semi-automatic rifle. Firearms found at Wainwright’s residence in Chesterton, the U.S. Attorney’ s Office said: handguns, shotguns, rifles, a semi-automatic rifle--20 different weapons in all--and additional rounds of ammunition. In a statement to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms, Wainwright admitted using at least one of the firearms to shoot at dogs, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said.On Jan. 10, 2008, Wainwright--convicted previously of child molesting and aiding in the sale of a stolen motor vehicle--agreed to plead guilty to one of the two counts of being a felon in possession of a firearm, an offense carrying a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison, three years of supervised release, and a $250,000 fine. On April 16, 2008, however--on the day he was scheduled to be sentenced--Wainwright filed a motion to withdraw his plea on the ground that he “was mistaken about the ultimate sentence he could have faced.” That motion was granted, a trial was subsequently held, and on June 24, 2008, a jury found Wainwright guilty on both counts.What exactly happened after Wainwright’s conviction is unclear, as several documents pertaining to the case have been sealed and the U.S. Attorney’s Office has declined to comment on the reason for their sealing or on Wainwright’s status as a fugitive. On Jan. 8, 2009, U.S. Attorney David Capp filed a motion for an order to unseal what it described as an “outstanding arrest warrant” for Wainwright. But then, less than a week later, on Jan. 13, Capp withdrew that motion and the arrest warrant remains sealed.
Posted 9/18/2009 |
