Former Concordia Parish deputy to be sentenced
posted Thursday, June 21st, 2007 @ 8:10 am

A former Concordia Parish deputy will be sentenced on Oct. 15, 2007, after changing his plea from not guilty to guilty in a case involving the pawning of a machine gun.

Orlando Davis — who resigned as a parish deputy — was indicted by a federal Grand Jury on one count of illegal transfer of a weapon and one count of fraudulent use of identity documents.

Davis' plea agreement was entered in the Western District of Louisiana, Monroe Division, on June 13, 2007.

Davis resigned as a parish deputy on Friday, April 7, 2006, after he allegedly pawned an automatic machine gun. Sheriff Randy Maxwell said following the resignation last year that Davis "resigned because he broke departmental regulations involving a weapon that had been issued to him."

According court records on the factual basis for Davis' change in plea:

"The Concordia Parish Sheriff's Department was the registered owner of a Heckler & Koch machine gun Model UMP, .40 caliber" which "was assigned to Defendant Orlando Davis, then a Deputy Sheriff employed by the Department."

Court documents indicate that Davis pawned the weapon at the F&S Pawn Shop in Monroe, where he "produced a Louisiana driver's license which identified him as 'Roderick Davis.'" Orlando Davis received $600 cash for the weapon.

On April 6, 2006, the court noted that when Davis "realized that the business had accepted a weapon subject to the National Firearms Act in pawn, a representative of F&S Pawn contacted the Bureau of Alcohol, Firearms, Tobacco and Explosives. Agents traced the gun back to the Concordia Parish Sheriff's Department."

"When he was unable to produce the weapon assigned to him, Davis admitted that he had pawned it using Roderick Davis' identification. Roderick is the defendant's brother. He is a Deputy Sheriff in Tensas Parish. Defendant stated that he needed money to pay bills and insurance. Defendant stated that his brother did not know what he (Defendant) was doing."

In the plea agreement, "the government agrees to dismiss the remaining count of the Indictment after sentencing. Defendant understands and agrees that should this plea be overturned for any reason at a later date, the Indictment, in its entirety, will be automatically reinstated without need for presentment to the Grand Jury or any motion or other action by the government.

"The Defendant understands that as part of the presentence investigation the Government will make available to the court all evidence developed in the investigation of this case."

Davis faces a maximum punishment of 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.

He may receive under the Sentencing Reform Act, a term of supervised released of not less than two but not more than three years.

Asst. U.S. Attorney Mignonne Griffing prosecuted Davis, who was represented by Charles L. Kincade.