FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Friday, April 16, 2021
Brooklyn Man Convicted of Possessing Loaded Gun in
First Jury Trial in Brooklyn Since the Start of the COVID Pandemic
Gun Discovered in Defendant’s Underwear Following Traffic Stop
Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez today announced that a 29-year-old Brooklyn man has been convicted of possessing an illegal gun after the first jury trial in Brooklyn since March 2020. Strict COVID protocols were observed throughout the proceedings and additional trials are expected to commence this month.
District Attorney Gonzalez said, “With this verdict, the defendant has been held accountable for possessing a loaded illegal gun on our streets. My dedicated prosecutors are ready to continue conducting trials, especially of cases involving gun-related and violent offenses, as we focus on keeping Brooklyn safe and reducing gun violence.”
The District Attorney identified the defendant as Marc Ferdinand, 29, of Canarsie, Brooklyn. He was convicted yesterday of second-degree criminal possession of a weapon and third-degree aggravated unlicensed operation following a jury trial before Brooklyn Supreme Court Justice Heidi Cesare. The defendant is facing a maximum sentence of 15 years in prison when he’s sentenced on May 28, 2021.
The District Attorney said that, according to trial testimony, on January 23, 2020, at 11:45 a.m., a 2016 Mercedes Benz the defendant was driving was stopped by police near the intersection of Avenue L and East 98th Street in Canarsie for excessively tinted windows. Officers discovered that he was driving with a suspended license and he was subsequently placed under arrest. When he was searched in the 69th Precinct stationhouse, a loaded .380 caliber pistol was found in his underwear. Swabs taken from the gun later matched the defendant’s DNA.
The eight-day trial was the first criminal or civil trial to be held with a jury in Brooklyn in over a year. COVID-19 protocols were in place, with all witnesses wearing transparent face masks, jurors spread throughout the courtroom and the proceedings being broadcast on closed circuit television to an overflow courtroom on a different floor.
The case was prosecuted by Assistant District Attorney Jennifer Da Rin, of the District Attorney’s Red Zone Trial Bureau, under the supervision of Assistant District Attorney Patrick L. O’Connor, Chief of the District Attorney’s Gun Violence Suppression Bureau, and Assistant District Attorney Karla Watson, Chief of the Red Zone Trial Bureau.
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