Short rifle barrels. Illegal magazines. What prosecutors say about man in chokehold case
JOHNSTON – Town police found illegally modified rifles and dozens of illegal high-capacity magazines for high-powered rifles at the scene of a domestic assault, according to prosecutors.
A Massachusetts man had put his girlfriend in a chokehold in a house on Juniper Lane last spring before she escaped through a bathroom, says a news release distributed Monday by the office of Rhode Island Attorney General Peter F. Neronha.
The 42-year-old man was charged in court after prosecutors brought the case.
Holden, Mass., man faces 68 counts in alleged assault
He faces 62 counts of possession of a large-capacity magazine, three counts of possession of a sawed-off rifle, one count of domestic assault by strangulation, one count of simple domestic assault and one count of domestic disorderly conduct, prosecutors say.
Police found the guns and weapons as they searched for the man in the basement of the home on May 5.
The man, of Holden, Massachusetts, later surrendered to Johnston police.
Police later returned to the Johnston house with a search warrant.
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Man accused of possessing magazines for .223 rounds
During the search, investigators seized three rifles with shortened barrels and 62 large-capacity magazines, some of which can carry .223-caliber bullets, prosecutors say.
A .223 round can be fired from a high-powered rifle such as an AR-15. In 2012, a man armed with a Bushmaster XM15 rifle and .223 rounds killed 20 children and six adults at the Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut.
In the Johnston case, the man was charged Dec. 4 in Superior Court, Providence.
This article originally appeared on The Providence Journal: RI brings dozens of weapons charges against Mass. man in chokehold case
