How Many Years Can You Get for Second-Degree Weapon Possession in New York?

Six selected defendant records do not support the former 3½-to-11½-year observed range. Telfair’s 2019 weapon conviction was reversed and a new trial ordered in 2023. Five other reports describe imposed prison outcomes of four, four, five, five and eleven-and-a-half years, but Noble’s five-year result includes a conspiracy plea without count allocation. Foehner and Gibbs also have separately reported five-year post-release supervision periods. Historical reversals, unallocated totals and supervision are not flattened into a citywide range, average or prediction.

Quick Answer

• Named records: 6, including a reversed historical conviction
• Later merits change: Telfair, November 21, 2023 reversal and new trial; post-remand outcome not verified
• Other reported prison terms: Livingston 4; Foehner 4; Nelson 5; Noble 5 (unallocated multi-count scope); Gibbs 11½ years
• Separate supervision: Foehner and Gibbs, 5 years each; not added to prison years
• Source-described areas: Brooklyn, Queens and the Bronx; independent municipal-point qualification incomplete
• Classification: Class C violent felony

See the New York hub, compare first-degree assault outcomes, and review our methodology.

What Is Second-Degree Criminal Possession of a Weapon?

New York Penal Law §265.03 defines several forms of second-degree criminal possession of a weapon, including possessing a loaded firearm with intent to use it unlawfully and possessing a loaded firearm outside the person’s home or business, subject to the statute’s exact terms and exceptions. It is a class C violent felony.

Statutory Sentence

For a first-time violent felony offender, Penal Law §70.02 generally sets a determinate range of 3.5 to 15 years for a class C violent felony, plus post-release supervision. Prior convictions and the applicable subsection can change the rules. The current section 70.02 page separately marks a future September 2027 version; future wording is not applied now or automatically to older judgments. These statutory provisions are distinct from the selected historical/imposed records in the table.

Observed Case Outcomes

Case Details

Sebastian Telfair: The August 12, 2019 release reported a 3½-year sentence for one second-degree-weapon-possession jury conviction. Its opening month/location shorthand is not used to override the June 11, 2017 Atlantic/Classon-area narrative in the October 6, 2021 appellate decision. That affirmance was later reversed by the November 21, 2023 Court of Appeals opinion, 2023 NY Slip Op 05965, which found prejudicial prior-act evidence error and ordered a new trial. This was not a blanket holding invalidating the weapon statute: the majority did not reach the unpreserved constitutional challenges. The old sentence remains historical context only; a later trial disposition is not verified here.

Tyrell Livingston: The September 9, 2022 official release, page 1 reports that day’s four-year sentence after a July 25 second-degree-possession plea. The November 18, 2020 vehicle incident was in front of 436 East 149th Street, distinct from East 143rd Street residence or later precinct inventory. Five recovered guns do not mean five separately sentenced counts. A same-name Manhattan shooting prosecution is not substituted for this Bronx result.

Charles Foehner: The January 14, 2026 release reports four years plus five years’ supervision after a November 20 weapon-possession plea. Weapons were found at the Kew Gardens apartment; the source expressly says he was not charged for the separate May 31, 2023 fatal shooting. The prison term is not labeled a homicide conviction or allocated among every recovered weapon.

Jeovanie Nelson: The August 18, 2025 release reports his May 7 possession plea and five-year sentence. Matthan’s separately reported ten-year multi-offense trial result and Davis’s then-unimposed hindering-prosecution sentence are not attributed to Nelson or counted as new independent clusters. Source conduct includes the Brownsville deli and ensuing shooting; the exact point for Nelson’s pleaded count is not independently certified.

Jerome Noble: The September 11, 2024 defendant addendum reports a plea to fourth-degree conspiracy and second-degree weapon possession followed by five years. It does not allocate that total between counts. Other Brick Squad defendants’ murder/life totals, weapon/conspiracy pleas and out-of-city conspiracy acts are not silently converted into Noble’s own count-level sentence or extra independent prosecutions.

Mark Gibbs: The November 30, 2023 release reports that day’s 11½ years plus five years’ supervision after an October second-degree-possession plea. It describes the July 3, 2022 incident at 214th Place/Jamaica Avenue; residence is not substituted for that conduct. Green’s sentencing was still expected as of this release, not independently verified as imposed here.

Why Sentences Differ

Subsection, conduct and admitted/proven allegations require case-specific records. The sources do not establish that the difference between two terms was caused by a particular prior, plea concession or judicial preference. A reversed conviction and unallocated multi-count sentence cannot supply comparable minimum/maximum endpoints.

Methodology

Six named records are presented, not six fully qualified completed independent cases. Actual relevant primary agency passages, the complete Livingston two-page release text and first-page visual, Telfair’s conviction/2021-affirmance/2023-reversal dispositions, and current sections 265.03 and 70.02 were read September 28, 2026. Post-remand Telfair status, exact municipal points, historical statutory routes and exhaustive later docket checks remain incomplete. Same-name unrelated judgments, co-defendants and appellate decisions do not multiply independent clusters. No observed numerical range is asserted.

Sources

• Penal Law §265.03
• Penal Law §70.02

Disclaimer

General information only, not legal advice. Weapon sentencing is fact- and history-specific.