Sunday June 10, 2001
Hartford, Conn.
Jury agrees potato was used as silencer
Defense attorneys said it was simply a potato. Prosecutors argued it was a silencer.
In the end, a jury decided a man who wielded a gun with a potato stuffed in the barrel was guilty of using a silencer-equipped gun in the commission of a drug crime, a conviction carrying a mandatory 25-year federal prison term.
Alpha McQueen, 30 was also convicted Friday of conspiracy to distribute marijuana.
Prosecutors said no expert testimony was needed to establish the significance of affixing a potato to the gun's barrel.
"It wasn't there to make French fries," prosecutor David A. Ring said.