Shelton Gun Thief Gets Four And A Half Years

A Bridgeport man accused of stealing more than 40 guns from a Shelton home has been sent to prison for four and a half years, the New Haven Register reported.

Shelton police arrested Jelani Lemon, 23, last April and charged him with first-degree larceny and 45 counts of theft of a firearm after a complicated investigation involving laundry baskets and an informant.

The weapons — valued at more than $50,000 — were stolen Aug. 22, 2013 from a house on a cul de sac in Huntington. 

But the homeowners did not realize the guns were missing until two months later, when a Fairfield detective contacted them after arresting Lemon and finding one of the stolen guns on him.

The homeowners told police that Lemon was a friend of their daughter, who was addicted to painkillers.

Though they hadn’t noticed the guns were missing, the girl’s mother told police that a few weeks prior, she noticed a mysterious pile of laundry near the spot in the home where more than 150 guns were stored, unlocked.

Normally the laundry would have been in a laundry basket, the woman told police.

The woman’s revelation was of particular interest to Fairfield cops, because a confidential informant had tipped them off about seeing Lemon with a laundry basket full of handguns.”

The daughter later told police she had been in the house alone with Lemon, but fell asleep before he left.

Lemon told cops the girl had given him the guns, and that he had off loaded” some of them to relatives in the Newark area.

The stolen firearms were valued at $50,000 because many of them were discontinued, collector’s items, or unopened from their original boxes.

Click here to read more about the investigation. 

According to court records, Lemon pleaded guilty Dec. 10 at Superior Court in Milford to 10 counts of theft of a firearm.

He was sentenced to four and a half years in prison Feb. 11, according to the Register.

After he serves his prison sentence, Lemon will be on probation for five years.

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