An Ansonia man in federal custody since last January on weapons charges was sentenced to a more than nine years in prison Friday.
Derrick Fogle, 33, pleaded guilty last June to possession of a firearm by a convicted felon before Senior U.S. District Judge Ellen Bree Burns. On Friday in U.S. District Court in New Haven, Judge Burns handed down a 110-month prison sentence, to be followed by three years of federal probation.
Federal prosecutors said that more than two years ago Fogle was found with a stolen Ruger 9 millimeter handgun that had been reported stolen. The weapon had an extended clip loaded with 16 bullets.
Fogle was the passenger in a car that was spotted by police in Shelton who were at the scene of a Howe Avenue drug raid four days before Christmas 2010.
Police thought the car, driven by Fogle’s wife, looked ​“suspicious,” so they followed the vehicle and stopped it on Route 8 in Derby.
Police wouldn’t say why they thought the vehicle was suspicious, but they said Fogle and his wife knew the residents of the Howe Avenue apartment raided that night.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Marc Silverman said in court in June that as Fogle got out of the car, a law enforcement officer saw part of a handgun underneath the passenger’s seat.
The gun was determined to have been stolen out of Greenville, N.C. in 2005, according to Silverman.
Fogle, aka ​“Giggles,” ​“Gigs,” and ​“G,” subsequently told police his wife didn’t know about the gun, which he said he had bought in Waterbury ​“for protection.”
Federal prosecutors said Friday that as part of the subsequent investigation into Fogle’s crack cocaine trafficking, law enforcement officers executed a search warrant at his residence on June 22, 2011.
The search revealed a Charter Arms Inc. Police Undercover .38 Special handgun loaded with six rounds of .38 caliber ammunition, an additional nine millimeter bullet, numerous plastic bags consistent with those used in packaging controlled substances for street-level distribution, three metal razor blades, a digital scale containing powder residue, several small pieces of crack cocaine, and four cellular telephones.
Fogle was jailed on state charges that day and eventually transferred to federal custody on Jan. 19, 2012.
Federal prosecutors say Fogle has nine felony convictions. A search of the state Judicial Branch’s online database yields records of convictions for Fogle on charges varying from assault to gun and drug possession dating back to 2002.
Fogle has also pleaded guilty at Superior Court in Derby to three counts of selling narcotics in April 2011. In those cases, a judge is expected to give him a prison term that will run at the same time as his federal prison sentence.
The case was investigated by the Ansonia Police Department, the Shelton Police Department, and the Drug Enforcement Administration, with assistance provided by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, according to a press release issued by federal prosecutors last year.