Feds File Charge Against NJ Sex Offender Found With 2 Firearms, Body Armor After Crash

TRENTON, NJ — A federal charge has been filed against a Toms River man who was arrested in October after authorities found him with loaded weapons and wearing a bulletproof vest after a crash in Mantoloking, authorities said.

Jeremy W. Barringer, 46, has been charged with one count of possession of a firearm by a convicted felon, Acting U.S. Attorney Rachael A. Honig announced Tuesday. He was arrested by federal authorities Tuesday morning and appeared by videoconference before U.S. Magistrate Judge Tonianne J. Bongiovanni in Trenton federal court, and was detained, Honig's office said.

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Barringer was convicted in 1999 in Missouri of sexually assaulting young women after he approached them on the street then broke into their homes, according to the New Jersey State Police sex offender registry. According to a 1995 news report on his arrest, Barringer was accused of assaulting several women who were students at Southwest Missouri State University.

About 3 a.m. On Oct. 24, Mantoloking and Bay Head police responded to a crash on Route 35 in Mantoloking and found Barringer behind the wheel, and saw a 5.56-millimeter semi-automatic rifle on the floorboard in the back seat, Honig's office said. Mantoloking police identified it as an AR-15. The rifle was later found to be loaded with 21 rounds of 5.56-millimeter full metal jacket ammunition, federal authorities said.

When officers ordered Barringer to step out of the vehicle, they saw he was wearing a tactical, bullet-proof vest and an empty handgun holster on his hip, and arrested him.

Officers then searched his vehicle and found a black 9mm semi-automatic pistol with no serial number, which is commonly referred to as a "ghost gun," Honig said.

The pistol was loaded with 14 rounds of hollow-point ammunition, and police also found three 9mm pistol magazines loaded with hollow-point ammunition, and three 30-round rifle magazines loaded with 5.56-millimeter ammunition, authorities said. Read more: Convicted Sex Offender Arrested With Loaded AR-15: Mantoloking PD

The count of possession of a firearm by a convicted felon carries a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine, Honig said.

Ocean County officials charged Barringer with eight counts of possession of high-capacity magazines, one count of unlawful possession of a rifle, unlawful possession of a handgun, possession of hollowpoint ammunition, and possession of a weapon after being a convicted sex offender, Mantoloking police said.

Honig said that in addition to Mantoloking and Bay Head police officers, agents with the FBI's Newark Division, detectives from the Ocean County Prosecutor’s Office, officers from the Ocean County Sheriff’s Office, and officers from the Toms River Police Department assisted in the investigation.

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