Gray man caught Thursday trying to pawn stolen guns in Williamsburg

Jason W. Graves, above, is escorted into the Williamsburg Police Dept. by Chief Wayne Bird Thursday afternoon.

A Gray man, who has previously been charged with possession of a firearm by a convicted felon, was arrested Thursday afternoon at a Williamsburg pawnshop while attempting to pawn more guns.

Williamsburg police charged Jason W. Graves, 32, of Gray, with four counts of receiving stolen firearms and four counts of possession of a firearm by a convicted felon. Police also served Graves with a Knox County warrant charging him with for receiving a stolen firearm and possession of a firearm by a convicted felon.

"In looking at his past history, he has numerous charges for possession of a firearm by a convicted felon and he is still out walking the streets," said Williamsburg Police Chief Wayne Bird.

"We’ve been in touch with the Alcohol Tobacco Firearms and Explosives (ATF) Office in London, and they are very interested in prosecuting him federally on this case just for the mere fact this guy has had so many possession of a firearm by a convicted felon charges and he is still out doing the same thing."

Bird said that the arrest was largely possible thanks to a city ordinance requiring pawnshops to use the Leads Online database, which is department has access too.

"By ordinance all pawnshops have to subscribe to this database and every 24 hours they have to upload all their transactions from this database," he said. "This allows officers to be able to sit here in the office or at home and monitor the transactions going on at pawnshops."

Another aspect of the database is that serial numbers are run through the National Crime Information Center (NCIC) database, which checks to see if the items have been reported stolen. If an item is reported stolen, local police are notified via e-mail.
Bird said that he checked the database Wednesday evening, and discovered about 95 items, which were reported stolen, including several firearms.

Bird and Detective Bobby Freeman went to a local pawnshop Thursday morning, and discovered six firearms, which had been reported stolen from Bell, McCreary, Harlan and Whitley counties.

"We also recovered some other items, which were taken during burglaries here in the city, such as Xbox’s and things like that," Bird said. "The reason were able to do that was because the officer had gotten the serial numbers and entered them in NCIC.

"While we were back at the police department processing evidence, we received a call from the pawnshop that one of the individuals, who pawned several firearms out of Bell County, which were stolen, had showed back up at the pawnshop with additional firearms."

Bird said that police went to the pawnshop, and arrested Graves.

The Williamsburg receiving stolen property and possession of a firearm by a convicted felon charges stemmed from the firearms that Williamsburg police recovered Thursday morning, which had been reported stolen in recently from Bell County, Bird said.
Bird said that police believe the four firearms Graves brought to the pawnshop Thursday afternoon were also stolen, but so far they haven’t been reported stolen.

"What happens with stolen firearms is when an officer takes the initial report, the homeowners don’t know their serial numbers and it takes them a few days to get their serial numbers," Bird said. "Sometimes you will have guns that are never entered into NCIC because the victims don’t know their serial numbers."

Another gun, which was recovered Thursday, was reported stolen during a break-in a couple of weeks ago in the Brush Arbor area. Police also recovered items taken during a burglary about three weeks ago at the Cumberland Heights apartment.

"The Leads database is awesome. It is the best tool that law enforcement ever had," Bird said. "Other area law enforcement agencies really, really need to look into it and get on board with it."

Bird estimates that it costs an agency his size about $1,600 to subscribe to Leads Online, but it costs the pawnshops nothing to subscribe to it.

When Williamsburg first start looking at using the system, Bird used a demo version and recovered two locally stolen laptop computers in Knoxville and Colorado.

"We’ve assisted the sheriff’s department on numerous cases using the Leads database where they recovered stolen property," he added.

"It was a great day Thursday for the Williamsburg Police Department as far as recovering stolen property goes."
Bird said other arrests are expected.

"A warning to the thieves, if you take your stolen property to the pawnshops here in Williamsburg, the Williamsburg Police Department be watching, we’ll know you did it, and we will be coming to your house," he added.

Officers taking part in Thursday’s investigation, included: Bird, Freeman, Lt. Jason Caddell, K-9 Officer Brandon Prewitt and Officer Elijah Hunter.