According to court documents, Canterbury was in possession of more than 280 guns, including pistols, revolvers, shotguns and rifles.
February 28, 2018
A federal judge has accepted a guilty plea from a Valley Grande man arrested last May for his involvement in a gun mill responsible for stealing and selling guns from the Selma Police Department’s evidence vault.
Richard Allen Canterbury’s guilty plea was accepted by U.S. District Court Judge Kristi K. DuBose. Canterbury agreed in January to plead guilty to three federal gun charges — felon in possession of firearms, dealing in arms without a license and possession of firearms with obliterated serial numbers. The plea deal was signed by Canterbury on Jan. 12.
According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Canterbury’s sentence hearing is scheduled for July 27.
He is looking at a penalty of up to 10 years for the first charge and up to five years on the other two charges, as well as fines up to $250,000 and a three-year term of supervised release following a prison sentence.
According to court documents, Canterbury was in possession of more than 280 guns, including pistols, revolvers, shotguns and rifles.
A list in Canterbury’s plea agreement detail each gun, caliber and serial number.
The weapons were recovered from a rented storage unit and his residence.
According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office, approximately 294 guns have been recovered in the case so far.
Adrienne Michelle Canterbury and Candice Ledbetter Byrum were also arrested for their involvement in the gun mill.
A Selma police officer that was over the evidence vault was dismissed from the department, but no charges have been filed against him.
Adrienne, who was an evidence technician for the Selma Police Department, was arrested on May 2 for allegedly stealing three pistols and fake gold chains from the department’s evidence vault.
The department started investigating her after they received a call from her son’s school saying he tried to sell the chains at school.
The investigation turned up three missing pistols, including one used in an April 14 homicide that claimed the life of 19-year-old Rufus Williams Jr.
A week later, she was arrested again along with her husband, Richard, and Byrum.
The trio was allegedly operating a gun mill that involved stealing the guns from the evidence vault, fixing them up and selling them.
The case was initially investigated by the Selma Police Department, but it was taken over the Federal Bureau of Investigation after a request from Selma Police Chief Spencer Collier.
The case was also investigated by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. It was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Gloria Bedwell.
