An East Haven man was sentenced to 6 months in prison Friday for manufacturing and selling ghost guns.
At least two of the unregistered guns 22-year old Giovanni Donofrio built in his home were used in six shooting incidents in New Haven. In one, occupants of two cars exchanged fire during daylight hours and a security camera captured a mother wrestling a child to the ground to keep the child safe.
Federal prosecutors said Donofrio was apprehended when New Haven police stopped a car believed to have been involved in an earlier shots fired incident and found three guns, two of them ghost guns, which are homemade weapons made of polymer type plastic.
Telephone text messages seized by the New Haven police captured Donofrio boasting about being an illegal gun dealer.
Ghost guns are illegal in Connecticut. But component kits from which they can be built are available for sale on the internet. Prosecutors said Donofrio was making and selling Polymer80 semi-automatic pistols with slides pre-manufactured by Glock.
One of the companies selling polymer ghost gun kits online advertises that its “build kit provides everything you need to complete a Glock-style pistol from the comfort of your own home workshop.”
Police caught Donofrio because the Glock slides in his homemade plastic guns were etched with serial numbers. When the numbers were traced it was learned that Donofrio bought them two weeks earlier, prosecutors said.
Prosecutors said a search of Donofrio’s home turned up ghost gun-making materials and equipment, such as “a Polymer80 box, a power drill and bits, multiple Polymer80 jigs—a tool used to complete the firearm to make it functional, empty packaging for 50 round 9mm drums, multiple slides, an AR15 Carbine Buffer Kit, a slide stop for a Glock, and a Glock grip.”
Prosecutors wanted Donofrio imprisoned for up to 16 months. U.S. District Judge Janet Bond Arterton imposed a six-month sentence.
