http://www.boston.com/dailynews/160/nation/Connecticut_jury_convicts_man_:.shtml

Connecticut jury convicts man of using potato as silencer to shake down victims

By Associated Press, 6/9/2001 19:03

HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) Defense attorneys said it was simply a potato. Prosecutors argued it was a silencer.

In the end, a jury decided a man who wielded a gun with a potato stuffed in the barrel was guilty of using a silencer-equipped gun in the commission of a drug crime a conviction carrying a mandatory 25-year federal prison sentence.

Alpha McQueen, 30, was also convicted Friday of conspiracy to distribute marijuana. Prosecutors said McQueen and another man, Dale Stewart, used the gun to shake down three women they suspected of stealing about $30,000 in drug money. No shots were fired.

Under a deal that spared him from the silencer charge, Stewart pleaded guilty last month to drug and gun charges carrying a mandatory minimum sentence of 10 years. McQueen was offered the same deal, but opted to go to trial.

In closing arguments, federal prosecutors said no expert testimony was necessary to establish the significance of affixing a potato to the gun's barrel.

''It wasn't there to make French fries,'' prosecutor David A. Ring said. ''Why else would he have done that?''

Defense attorney David Wenc said he planned to appeal and that prosecutors failed to prove their case.

-- Anonymous, June 10, 2001

Answers

If only it was in California, we could have seen a statement from CHIPS.

-- Anonymous, June 11, 2001

Perhaps he sat on the potato and was using the gun to retrieve it? Or was that in another thread?

-- Anonymous, June 11, 2001

What a bunch of flakes.

-- Anonymous, June 11, 2001