Maurice Hill, 36, shot six police officers on August 14. While it is known he had a long criminal history, it is now being reported that he was once a federal informant.
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The Appeal reports that in June 2008, “Hill entered a guilty plea the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania for being a felon in possession of a firearm. He was sentenced in the case in 2010. ”
In an April 2010 sentencing memorandum filed with the court, Hill’s attorney “filed a motion for a downward departure from Hill’s guideline sentence because he provided substantial assistance to the federal government. ” His attorney wrote, “He has testified before the Grand Jury on two occasions, was willing to testify at trial, and provided information about a shooter that led to an arrest. He has cooperated with the Government and provided information that has and will likely continue to imperil his safety and that of his family.”
The details of his sentencing was sealed by the court.
This is an important details considering U.S. Attorney William McSwain has been blaming progressive Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner but left out Hill’s history of being an informant.
Krasner spokesperson told The Appeal, “The [district attorney’s office] has no interest in engaging with Bill McSwain’s inappropriate attempts to run for political office from his taxpayer-funded perch in Donald Trump’s DOJ.”
The Philadelphia Inquirer reports Hill adult criminal justice system starts in 2001. At the age of 18, he was arrested with a gun that had an altered serial number. The outlet also reports, “Public records show that he has been arrested about a dozen times since turning 18, and convicted six times on charges that involved illegal possession of guns, drug dealing, and aggravated assault. He has been in and out of prison; the longest sentence handed him came in 2010, when a federal judge gave him a 55-month term.”
When he was incarcerated in 2008, he escaped. He was convicted of escaping, fleeing from police, and resisting arrest. Also in 2008, was in federal prison of pleading guilty to “federal firearms violations after he was caught with a Smith & Wesson .357 and later a Taurus PT .45 semiautomatic.” Yet, he was still able to get those weapons even with prior felony convictions.
Others charges include being convicted of perjury in 2013 and sentenced to seven years of probation. In 2014 he was driving an unregistered scooter and when police went after him Hill “crashed the scooter and then fled on foot but was apprehended. He was charged with driving without a license, recklessly endangering another person, and fleeing police, but later was acquitted on all counts,” according to The Philadelphia Inquirer.
According to Hill’s lawyer, Shaka Johnson, Hill has a girlfriend, a babygirl that was born earlier this month, and a teenage son.
You can read Hill’s full criminal history, here.
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