staci dawson

Staci Dawson

A Pennsylvania woman with a felon for a boyfriend could serve nearly 12 years in prison for buying two guns, one of which ended up in the hands of another ex-con.

A state Superior Court panel reinforced that possibility for Staci Dawson recently by denying her appeal of her 71 1/2 to 143-month prison term imposed by a Delaware County judge.

"Straw" purchases of guns, where someone buys a firearm as a proxy for someone else, are illegal in Pennsylvania, especially if the intended recipient of the weapon is a convicted felon who is barred from having guns.

Dawson, now 24, was the first person in Pennsylvania to be sentenced under the Brad Fox law, which bars straw gun buys. The law, which took effect in 2013, is named for a police officer who was shot and killed by a man who obtained a gun through a straw purchase.

Dawson received her prison sentence after a county jury convicted her in August 2014 on charges of illegal sale or transfer of firearms, conspiracy and filing a false report to police.

According to the Superior Court opinion by Judge Sallie Updyke Mundy, Dawson bought two pistols from a sporting goods store in February 2013. Less than a month later, a van driven by Dawson's boyfriend, David Colon, was stopped by police in Chester after a chase that ended with a crash.

Colon had cocaine, police said, while one of the pistols Dawson bought was found in the waistband of another felon in the van. After his arrest, Colon coached Dawson during phone calls from prison to falsely report that her guns were stolen. Their conversations were recorded.

In upholding her sentence, Mundy rejected Dawson's argument that the penalty is illegally harsh.