MOBILE, Ala. — A federal judge on Thursday sentenced two Mobile men to a year and a day in prison after each admitted possessing an illegal machine gun conversion device in downtown Mobile in the days surrounding a pair of Joe Cain Day shootings.
Joshua Marcel Pugh and Braedan Matthew Thomas each received sentences of one year and a day behind bars, followed by three years of supervision by the U.S. Probation Office. Pugh had a Glock switch when police arrested him on Fat Tuesday at a gas station on North Broad Street. Thomas was found with one the night before.
Sentencing was delayed for a third defendant, Kelvin Barnes Jr., who pleaded guilty to the same offense.
Back-to-back shootings put police on alert
Mobile police were operating on heightened alert after two unrelated, back-to-back shootings a block apart on Feb. 15. The first shooting happened on Dauphin Street outside a nightclub where an argument had broken out, leaving several people with gunshot wounds.
The second shooting occurred in the parking lot at the corner of Joachim and Conti streets, across from the Saenger Theatre. Investigators later determined that the shooter in that case acted in self-defense when he fired at and killed Javeli Alexander.
A video mocking the victim
Court records show Thomas admitted he had a Glock switch the day after the shooting, and that he appeared in a video mocking Alexander. Mobile police spotted Thomas walking on North Broad Street near Springhill Avenue about 40 minutes after the video appeared on Instagram.
In a sentencing memo, Federal Defender Carlos Williams wrote that Alexander was a close friend of Carl Washington, the man accused of murdering Thomas’ twin, whom the family has identified as a transgender teenager who went by the name Tayy. Williams wrote that Alexander and his friends had mocked Tayy.
“Mr. Thomas asserts that he did not intend to make a public spectacle of Javeli’s death,” Williams wrote. “It was supposed to be between him and his friends in their group chat.”
Williams wrote that a friend posted the video on social media.
“Mr. Thomas realizes that his actions mocking Alexander was wrong, yet, as the time, it felt cathartic, a releasing,” he wrote.
What a Glock switch is — and why it matters
A Glock switch is a small device that converts a semi-automatic handgun into a machine gun, allowing it to fire continuously with a single pull of the trigger. Under federal law, possessing one is treated the same as possessing an unregistered machine gun, a serious firearms offense that has become an increasing focus of federal prosecutors in South Alabama.
The devices are cheap, widely available online and have turned up in a growing number of arrests across the Gulf Coast, which is why police and prosecutors have made them a priority even when no shots are fired.
Three-year supervision terms
Both men will spend three years under supervision by the U.S. Probation Office after their sentences end. Barnes, whose sentencing was delayed, remains awaiting his day in court.
The case is one of several machine gun conversion device prosecutions in Mobile’s federal court in recent years, and police say the arrests around Joe Cain Day reflect the extra scrutiny officers placed on the downtown crowd after the two shootings.