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Machine-gun owning Berkeley man gets probation, home detention
Henry K. Lee, Chronicle Staff Writer
Friday, March 23, 2007
(03-23) 12:01 PDT OAKLAND -- A Berkeley man was sentenced to three years' probation and six months of home detention today for possessing a machine gun in connection with the discovery of a cache of weapons after a 2005 fire at a liquor store below his apartment.
Leslie Tanigawa, 47, was ordered by U.S. District Judge D. Lowell Jensen also to perform 250 hours of community service and to pay a $4,000 fine. Tanigawa must spend the six months of home detention while under electronic monitoring.
Tanigawa declined to comment after the hearing in a federal courtroom in Oakland today. In January, Tanigawa pleaded guilty to a felony charge of possession of a PWA Commando 5.56- mm machine gun.
On July 25, 2005, a fire broke out at the Black and White liquor store near Adeline and Emerson streets in Berkeley. Tanigawa, who lived above the store, called 911 to report the fire and then told responding firefighters that he had marijuana plants and guns in his apartment, authorities said.
After the fire was extinguished, Tanigawa agreed to allow Berkeley police to search his home, and officers found dozens of guns, including a sniper rifle, about two dozen assault rifles, shotguns, the machine gun and rounds of ammunition, authorities said.
Most of the guns were in a locked closet and had been inherited from an uncle nine months before the fire, Assistant U.S. Attorney Doug Sprague wrote in a sentencing memorandum. Tanigawa voluntarily agreed to forfeit the weapons, the federal prosecutor said.
"Nonetheless, the number of firearms and the ammunition he possessed is troubling," Sprague wrote, adding that the sentence would deter Tanigawa from "engaging in similar unlawful behavior."
Tanigawa wasn't prosecuted for the marijuana, but Sprague cited the plants as reasons for a felony sentence.
Tanigawa's attorneys, Paul Wolf and Lynn Keslar of Oakland, described their client in court papers as a "productive and upstanding member of our community" and a "lifelong collector of legal firearms" who had never posed a danger to anyone.
In court today, the judge agreed.
"We do have a need to vigorously enforce our gun laws," Jensen said as Tanigawa nodded.
However, the judge noted that current federal sentencing guidelines recognize that "the offenders are different" and that "the threat to the community is different."
Jensen said Tanigawa did not present a threat to the community and would likely not run afoul of the law again. "That's pretty clear to me."
E-mail Henry K. Lee at hlee@sfchronicle.com
Machine-gun owning Berkeley man gets probation, home detention
Henry K. Lee, Chronicle Staff Writer
Friday, March 23, 2007
(03-23) 12:01 PDT OAKLAND -- A Berkeley man was sentenced to three years' probation and six months of home detention today for possessing a machine gun in connection with the discovery of a cache of weapons after a 2005 fire at a liquor store below his apartment.
Leslie Tanigawa, 47, was ordered by U.S. District Judge D. Lowell Jensen also to perform 250 hours of community service and to pay a $4,000 fine. Tanigawa must spend the six months of home detention while under electronic monitoring.
Tanigawa declined to comment after the hearing in a federal courtroom in Oakland today. In January, Tanigawa pleaded guilty to a felony charge of possession of a PWA Commando 5.56- mm machine gun.
On July 25, 2005, a fire broke out at the Black and White liquor store near Adeline and Emerson streets in Berkeley. Tanigawa, who lived above the store, called 911 to report the fire and then told responding firefighters that he had marijuana plants and guns in his apartment, authorities said.
After the fire was extinguished, Tanigawa agreed to allow Berkeley police to search his home, and officers found dozens of guns, including a sniper rifle, about two dozen assault rifles, shotguns, the machine gun and rounds of ammunition, authorities said.
Most of the guns were in a locked closet and had been inherited from an uncle nine months before the fire, Assistant U.S. Attorney Doug Sprague wrote in a sentencing memorandum. Tanigawa voluntarily agreed to forfeit the weapons, the federal prosecutor said.
"Nonetheless, the number of firearms and the ammunition he possessed is troubling," Sprague wrote, adding that the sentence would deter Tanigawa from "engaging in similar unlawful behavior."
Tanigawa wasn't prosecuted for the marijuana, but Sprague cited the plants as reasons for a felony sentence.
Tanigawa's attorneys, Paul Wolf and Lynn Keslar of Oakland, described their client in court papers as a "productive and upstanding member of our community" and a "lifelong collector of legal firearms" who had never posed a danger to anyone.
In court today, the judge agreed.
"We do have a need to vigorously enforce our gun laws," Jensen said as Tanigawa nodded.
However, the judge noted that current federal sentencing guidelines recognize that "the offenders are different" and that "the threat to the community is different."
Jensen said Tanigawa did not present a threat to the community and would likely not run afoul of the law again. "That's pretty clear to me."
E-mail Henry K. Lee at hlee@sfchronicle.com
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