Woman sentenced for firearms conspiracy and obstruction
Published 10:01 am Tuesday, July 17, 2018
A Suffolk woman was sentenced Monday to 12 months in prison and six months under house arrest for helping her husband possess firearms after he was convicted of a felony and attempting to obstruct the investigation against him.
According to court documents, Christina Danielle Patterson, 42, helped her husband and co-defendant buy, sell and keep in their home more than 20 guns, according to a press release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
She then lied about doing so during an interview with ATF agents; attempted to contact a witness in a ploy to have him generate a false sales receipt showing that she, rather than her husband, was the seller of a gun; changed the registered business address of the family business in an attempt to invalidate a federal search warrant; and stole business records and other evidence from a third party, among many other acts of obstruction carried out at her husband’s direction.
Once Patterson was charged in a superseding indictment and detained pending trial, she agreed to cooperate but then continued to undermine the investigation against her husband by giving statements to law enforcement that contradicted several other cooperating witnesses and that falsely exonerated her from wrongdoing, the press release stated.
As her husband’s trial approached, she rejected her signed statement of facts and denied committing any crimes, all while under oath during a Social Security administrative proceeding for disability benefits.