Man, 30, Gets 3 Years In Prison For Handgun Possession: Feds

NEW HAVEN, CT —This is what federal prosecutors said happened.

In 2019, Tyrell Cox-Henderson went into a New Haven convenience store and hid a Smith & Wesson .357 caliber revolver on a shelf behind some merchandise. Around an hour later, Allen Lusmat, 30, of Bridgeport went into the store and retrieved the firearm from the shelf. Later that day, after New Haven police officers looked at the convenience store’s surveillance video, they stopped a car in which Lusmat was a passenger. They said when they got to the car, Lusmat threw a black plastic bag out of the window, and inside was the gun. He was arrested at that time.

Lusmat was convicted in 2016 of several felony weapons charges and spent almost three years in state prison, court records show.

Federal prosecutors said that it's a violation of federal law for a person previously convicted of a felony offense to possess a firearm.

Cox-Henderson was also arrested, charged and pleaded guilty last September and awaits sentencing.

The U.S. Attorney for Connecticut said that Lusmat, who pleaded guilty in November 2020, was sentenced Thursday to 37 months in prison, followed by three years of supervised release, for unlawfully possessing a firearm.