A Temple City man and his adult daughter have been charged with having an illegal cache of weapons, including more than a dozen assault rifles, California Attorney General Xavier Becerra announced Wednesday.
The case against Steven David Ponder, 57, and Riley Elizabeth Ponder, 27, was filed after a Valentine’s Day raid on Steven Ponder’s home.
Ponder is banned from owning a gun because of his previous felony convictions for possession of a machine gun and counterfeiting money, Becerra said. Ponder appeared in a unique state database – the Armed Prohibited Persons System – that cross-references criminal and restraining order records with gun registration records.
Becerra emphasized at a news conference in downtown L.A. that the type of action conducted against the Ponders is done only in California because of that database, which was created in 1999.
“We’re the only state that does this. It’s a shame – because we see tragedies occur way too often, and mass killings,” he added.
A news release from Becerra’s office describes California as the “first and only state in the nation to establish an automated system for tracking firearm owners who might fall into a prohibited status.”
State Department of Justice Bureau of Firearms investigators who raided the Ponder home were looking for four illegal firearms that Ponder had registered, Becerra said.
A weapons cache seized at Steven Ponder’s Temple City home is shown at a downtown L.A. news conference on Feb. 21, 2018. (Credit: KTLA)
They found 28 firearms and 66,000 rounds of ammunition. The cache included:
- 13 AR-15-style rifles
- 11 “ghost guns” with no serial number, meaning they can’t be traced
- two fully automatic machine guns
- several rounds of tracer ammunition
“If someone has this kind of firepower and they are going through great pains to make sure that it isn’t traceable, it is for ill-gotten gains,” said L.A. County District Attorney Jackie Lacey, who announced the charges against the Ponders.
Steven Ponder has been charged with: possession of a firearm by a felon; unlawful possession of ammunition; possession of a destructive device; unlawful assault weapon/.50 BMG rifle activity; possession of an assault weapon; possession of a machine gun; and possession of a short-barreled rifle or shotgun.
Riley Ponder has been charged with: possession of an assault weapon; possession of destructive device; and prohibited transfer of firearms.
They are both due for arraignment in Alhambra court — the father on March 19 and the daughter on March 8. Steven Ponder faces up to eight years in state prison if convicted as charged; his daughter could face five years.
The announcement of the arrest of the Ponders comes about two weeks after L.A. City Attorney Mike Feuer revealed the raid of the home of a North Hollywood man, Mark Morman, in a search of two illegal weapons. Investigators found 25 weapons, 2,000 rounds of ammunition and 44 magazines at Morman’s home.
from KTLA http://ift.tt/2onAaIE
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