Las Vegas man who illegally sold guns used in multiple homicides sentenced to prison

LAS VEGAS (KSNV) — Sylvester Mitchell, a 47-year-old Las Vegas man, was sentenced to prison Tuesday, Jan. 14, after selling nearly 200 firearms without holding a Federal Firearms License.

Mitchell pleaded guilty in October 2018 to the crime, and he was sentenced two years and five months in prison.

Court documents show that between January and November of 2017, he bought around 226 pistols, building his arsenal on a weekly basis.

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He would often go to multiple licensed gun sellers on the same day to make purchases.

Days or weeks after buying those guns, Mitchell would place ads online, offering to sell them even though he at no point had a license to sell them.

More than 100 of those firearms Mitchell sold were recovered and found to have been illegally possessed, used in a crim or suspected to have been used in a crime.

Five of the firearms he sold illegally were recovered in connection with homicides.

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Law enforcement conducted multiple undercover firearms purchases from Mitchell based on his online advertisements. While executing a warrant on Nov. 7, 2017, officers seized 37 guns, including eight being advertised for sale.

Mitchell’s sentence will be followed by three years of supervised release.