Michael Henry, the straw purchaser of the gun used to kill Plymouth police Officer Brad Fox, is led into the courtroom for his sentencing in Montgomery County Courthouse Thursday, Aug. 15, 2013. Photo by Gene Walsh
Local news reports
During an emotion-filled hearing punctuated by tears and grief from the widow and comrades of slain Plymouth police Officer Bradley Fox, a Philadelphia man learned his fate for providing a gun to the Lower Merion man who used it to kill Fox.Michael Joseph Henry, 31, of the 900 block of North 41st Street, was sentenced in Montgomery County Court on Thursday to 20to66 years in a state correctional facility for selling nine guns, including a Beretta pistol, to convicted felon Andrew Charles Thomas, who used the Beretta to fatally shoot Fox last Sept. 13.
“This defendant is supplying guns to someone who is suicidal and who he thinks is paranoid and he’s arming him to the teeth. I find that to be an aggravating factor,” said Judge Joseph A. Smyth, explaining his reasons for imposing some maximum penalties against Henry. “He placed these guns into the underground market which is usually frequented by criminals.”
Henry, prosecutors said, made “straw purchases” of nine firearms, seven pistols and two rifles, at gun stores in West Norriton, Montgomery County, and East Pikeland, Chester County, between April and July 2012. Henry then illegally transferred the nine weapons, in exchange for $500 each, to Thomas, 44, of Grasmere Road, Lower Merion.
