An Orange County federal judge showed no patience with a dope-loving, convicted felon who sold three firearms to undercover government agents in 2012 and handed him a high-end punishment based on sentencing guidelines.
Brandon Fitzpatrick entered U.S. District Court Judge Josephine L. Staton’s courtroom on Aug. 15 with three prior felony convictions and watched federal prosecutor’s recommendation of a 33-month sentence turn into a 41-month prison punishment.
In addition to Fitzpatrick’s substance abuse–daily marijuana, methamphetamine and alcohol intake, the defendant has a history of violence against his mother, according to federal law enforcement records.
The weapons involved in the defendant’s illegal sales operation in Stanton included a .22 Magnum caliber pistol, AR-422 High Standard Apache model rifle and a GSG-522, 22 LR caliber rifle.
Fitzpatrick signed a guilty plea in March in exchange for the government dropping three of the four charges contained in a January 2014 federal grand jury indictment that included accusations that he also possessed counterfeit currency.
In 2011, he received a 24-month prison sentence stemming from a state drug possession case but served only five months in custody, according to incarceration records.
Fitzpatrick–who was born in 1981–remains today in the custody of U.S. marshals in Orange County and is awaiting transfer to a federal prison.
It is illegal for convicted felons to possess weapons.
CNN-featured investigative reporter R. Scott Moxley has won Journalist of the Year honors at the Los Angeles Press Club; been named Distinguished Journalist of the Year by the LA Society of Professional Journalists; obtained one of the last exclusive prison interviews with Charles Manson disciple Susan Atkins; won inclusion in Jeffrey Toobin’s The Best American Crime ReportingĀ for his coverage of a white supremacist’s senseless murder of a beloved Vietnamese refugee; launched multi-year probes that resulted in the FBI arrests and convictions of the top three ranking members of the Orange County Sheriff’s Department; and gained praise fromĀ New York Times Magazine writers for his “herculean job” exposing entrenched Southern California law enforcement corruption.