Countywide : Man, 28, Found Guilty of Selling Guns Illegally

A federal jury on Tuesday convicted a Long Beach man of participating in an underground gun syndicate that authorities said supplied hundreds of inexpensive weapons to gang members and criminals in Orange County for years.

After deliberating for four hours, the jury of seven women and five men found 28-year-old Sambeth So guilty on 34 counts of selling firearms without a license and giving false information in connection with the purchase of firearms.

So was found not guilty on three related counts.

He and two others were indicted by a federal grand jury in April on charges of participating in an illegal gun ring.

Authorities alleged that James Larry Simmons, a 55-year-old Temecula resident, used his federal firearms license to acquire about 1,700 guns from October, 1990, to April, 1994. Simmons then illegally sold the weapons at swap meets through So and another contact, prosecutors alleged.

Simmons has pleaded guilty to federal weapons violations and is to be sentenced in November. A third defendant, 62-year-old Lynette Grove of Whittier, has enrolled in a pretrial diversion program, meaning that she probably would not face trial if she does not commit any crimes within the next year.

Federal agents began investigating Simmons in February after an 18-year-old gang member was shot and killed in a schoolyard confrontation with Santa Ana police.

Authorities traced the dead man’s gun to Simmons.

Simmons sold the weapons without filling out the required paperwork to determine if a person is ineligible to possess a firearm, or requiring the buyer to meet the required 15-day waiting period, said Assistant U.S. Atty. Wayne Gross, who prosecuted So.

So was the distributor of the guns, Gross said.

Judge Linda McLaughlin granted a request by defense attorney Ken M. Miller of Irvine to allow So to remain free on $10,000 bail pending a Nov. 13 sentencing hearing. He faces a prison term of three to five years under federal sentencing guidelines.

Miller said he plans to appeal the verdict.