By MATT MILNER Courier staff writer
May 13, 2008 11:32 pm
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ELDON — Bela Hummel has asked the court to allow him to keep what guns he currently owns at his home pending the conclusion of his court case.
The request, entered earlier this month, says Hummel “wanted to keep his current weapons and dispose of all of them at one time in the event the court ruled in his favor of returning his firearms seized during the current charges.”
Hummel, who lives just outside Eldon, faces federal charges for dealing firearms without a license. Federal prosecutors filed the charges in March 2007, almost a year after investigators seized more than 600 guns from his property. The two sides reached a plea bargain in February.
The agreement means Hummel will give up his guns, including those used for hunting, when he is sentenced. But the new request focuses on what happens to the guns in the meantime. The filing says that “when [the guns] are returned, he intends to sell them and place the money back into his retirement account” so he and his wife have access to the funds.
Alfredo Parrish, Hummel’s attorney, stressed Hummel’s cooperation with authorities in the filing. He called the decision to enter a guilty plea “was one of the most difficult decisions of [Hummel’s] life,” and said officers who visited Hummel indicated he was cooperative. Hummel has no prior criminal record and suffers from cancer.
“The interest of justice would require that under these unique fact circumstances, Mr. Hummel be allowed to keep his guns until the hearing on ownership of the rest of them. It would be required that he would keep them in a locked cabinet and that they are removed to the garage area when pre-trial officers conduct any other visits. At the moment, no other visits are scheduled and no further visits are necessary,” Parrish wrote.
The plea bargain spares Hummel any prison time. He could have faced up to five years in prison, but the agreement calls probation the “appropriate disposition of this case.”
Matt Milner can be reached at (641) 683-5359 or via e-mail at mwmilner@mchsi.com
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