The Boston Police Department reports arresting a Jamaican national living in Hyde Park on various gun charges – among them, being an armed career criminal for offenses that date back decades and which have led to him being deported at least once.
Police say officers on patrol in the Franklin Field development Tuesday evening spotted a guy “who was known to them” in a group of people outside 26 Westview St.:
Following a query of the individual, officers learned that he had an active felony warrant out of West Roxbury District Court.
As officers attempted to speak with the suspect, he slowly began walking further and further away from them. Officers were able to speak with the suspect who provided them with a license out of the US Virgin Islands with a name that did not match the suspect’s. Upon positively identifying the suspect, officers placed him into custody. While searching the suspect, officers located a firearm inside of the suspect’s front waistband.
The firearm was determined to be a Glock 27 .40 caliber firearm loaded with nine rounds of live ammunition.
Marlon Straw, 54, of Hyde Park, was charged with unlawful possession of a firearm, third offense, unlawful possession of ammunition, subsequent offense and carrying a loaded firearm, police say, adding he was also charged as a Level 3 armed career criminal. Being a Level 3 armed career criminal means a minimum state-prison sentence of 15 years on conviction.
At Straw’s arraignment in Dorchester Municipal Court on Wednesday, a judge ordered him held pending a dangerousness hearing on May 18.
According to court records, Straw has a record of convictions dating to 1993, when he was sentenced in Suffolk Superior Court to 15 years in state prison for cocaine trafficking. In November, 2004, he was convicted, also in Suffolk Superior Court, of armed assault to rob, and sentenced to 8 to 10 years in prison. In February, 2006, he was convicted in Suffolk court, of marijuana trafficking – for his role in moving some hundreds of pounds of marijuana shipped in crates via Logan, and sentenced to 3 years in prison.
In 2013, the federal government deported him back to his native Jamaica. But two years later, during a traffic stop in Rhode Island – he was a passenger while his wife was speeding – he was arrested after giving fake names to state troopers, who then found a loaded gun he’d hidden inside his long johns and his sock. He pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 46 months in federal prison. and warned he would likely be deported again after he served his sentence.
Federal prison records show he was released on Aug. 24, 2018. Federal court records do not indicate if he was, in fact, deported or he simply returned to Hyde Park.
