OAKLAND — A Bay Area man who was involved with a group that sold dozens of firearms avoided a jail sentence and was instead sentenced to three years probation Monday, according to court records.
Rahsaan “SG” Faison was formally sentenced to the roughly two months he had already spent in jail when he was indicted in late 2018, according to court records. This means Faison faces no additional jail time, and avoided a one-year jail sentence proposed by federal prosecutors.
Judge Haywood Gilliam Jr. handed down the sentence on Monday, court records show. It includes a $100 fine and three years of federal probation.
Rahsaan Faison and his brother, Julian Faison, sold six guns to an undercover federal agent, according to court records. The two were involved in a group that sold a total of 35 guns to the agent, though no one involved was a licensed gun dealer.
The case received widespread media attention because of the actions of several of Rahsaan Faison’s co-defendants: James Medeiros, 25, of San Leandro, and Marcos Antonio Martenez, 25, of Oakland, and Anthony Reed, 23, then a Nevada resident, who conspired to rob the undercover agent.
During a coordinated gun buy, the three robbers pulled guns and took $8,000 in cash from the undercover agent, who worked for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms. They were later surprised to find out the agent’s true identity when federal prosecutors charged them with armed robbery.
The Faison brothers were not present during the robbery and were considered lesser defendants.
Faison was indicted in November 2018 and released from custody two months later. He has a prior conviction for battery, which his attorney said stems from when “he and friends were on a lot of Xanax at Great America during ‘Halloween’ week, they used a fire extinguisher to spray people dressed as monsters who popped out at them.”
Similarly, Faison’s conduct in the gun trafficking case stemmed from drug and alcohol use, his attorney Shawn Halbert wrote in a sentencing memorandum.
“Mr. Faison did not set out to sell guns; it was a way to make money through someone he knew. It is only with the shock of his arrest and his new sobriety that Mr. Faison appreciates the moral implications of his actions,” Halbert wrote. “He would never have been involved in this offense if he had been sober.”
