A man from Orange Park was sentenced to 5 years for machinegun conversion transfers
Kristopher Justinboyer Ervin, 43, was sentenced to five years and eight months in federal prison.
He was found guilty of conspiring to transfer and transferring unregistered machinegun conversion devices.
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Ervin additionally was sentenced for structuring cash withdrawals from his bank account consisting of proceeds from the sale of the devices.
According to court documents, in January 2021, Ervin’s bank contacted ATF to report that they believed Ervin was trafficking machinegun conversion devices.
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Subsequent investigation revealed that Ervin was running an online business selling machinegun conversion devices, known as lightning links, etched into metal cards, which he referred to as Auto Key Cards. Ervin described the Auto Key Card as a “pen holder,” a “novelty,” and a “political sculpture.”
In February 2021, federal agents from ATF and the U.S. Postal Inspection Service surveilled Ervin and observed him dropping off dozens of packages at an Orange Park, Florida, post office, each of which was determined to contain unregistered machinegun conversion devices. A lightning link can be dropped into an otherwise legal AR-15-type firearm and converted into a fully automatic machine gun.
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Matthew Raymond Hoover operated a YouTube channel called CRS Firearms on which he advertised Auto Key Cards. Hoover stated that his viewers could cut a lightning link out of the Auto Key Card, “drop it in your receiver, scratch your full auto itch, throw it away when you’re done” and “no one’s the wiser.”
Hoover’s videos advertising the Auto Key Card led to a substantial increase in Ervin’s sales. Ervin sold more than 2,000 Auto Key Cards in only a few months.
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Multiple purchasers of the Auto Key Card testified at trial that they had learned about it from Hoover’s videos and purchased the Auto Key Card intending to use it to convert their AR-15-type weapons into machine guns. Ervin compensated Hoover for his advertisements by sending cash through the mail and, on one occasion, a Louis Vuitton purse.
The court also ordered Ervin to forfeit $68,000, representing the amount of funds involved in the structuring offense. Ervin and Hoover were found guilty by a federal jury on April 21, 2023.
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