Clerk who sold Sandy Hook gun sentenced

BRIDGEPORT -- Krystopher DiBella will forever be known as the man who sold the Sandy Hook murder weapon to Nancy Lanza on March 15, 2010. That gun was used by Adam Lanza, her youngest son, to massacre 20 children and six adults at the Sandy Hook Elementary School.

But that was a legal sale.

What got DiBella into federal trouble was his sale of a gun to a non-documented resident on the same day as Lanza's purchase.

On Monday, DiBella, 25, of West Suffield, was sentenced to three years' probation, banned from applying for a license to sell guns during those years and fined $250. He pleaded guilty in June to a misdemeanor charge of aiding and abetting the failure to make a proper entry on a U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives form.

"I apologize. I'm sorry," DiBella, a heavy 6-footer told U.S. Magistrate Judge Holly B. Fitzsimmons. "I've gotten 15 years of training in the past few months."

As an employee of Riverview Sales Inc., DiBella, a volunteer firefighter, sold a gun to Mac Waughla Peak, a non-immigrant resident from Jamaica. The sale took place even though Peak failed to properly answer questions about his citizenship on the ATF form.

Still, Lawrence Church, DiBella's lawyer, advised Fitzsimmons that his client was not the only one to make a mistake in that sale. The defense lawyer said various government agencies could share the blame.

Church said the city of Hartford issued Peak a temporary carry license. The FBI found no problems after reviewing Peak's fingerprints. And the state issued a carry and pistol permit. All took place before DiBella's sale.

"To suggest a sales clerk should expect that a person was not lawfully able to purchase when they have a certified permit is not credible," Church said. He added that his client received no commission on his gun sales.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Robert Spector said Riverview was rife with errors since becoming the second-highest volume gun dealer in Connecticut. Forms were filled out incorrectly, guns were turned over before approvals were received and thefts went unreported.

Both Riverview and its owner, David Laguercia, pleaded guilty to misdemeanor record-keeping charges and are expected to be sentenced in January. The store's license to sell guns was revoked.

Spector said DiBella "was sloppy in his job at Riverview, but there is no evidence to suggest that his errors caused a firearm to be sold to a felon or that he was responsible for knowingly transferring firearms to prohibited individuals."

Instead, the prosecutor said, "It appears that the defendant received poor training at Riverview and knew very little about the regulations governing federal firearms sales prior to becoming employed ..."

mmayko@ctpost.com; 203-330-6286