Judge Abena Darkeh sentenced Dexter Taylor, a Brooklyn software engineer, to ten years in prison for building firearms in his apartment. Officials labeled them as “ghost guns.”The jury found him guilty of:
What part of the Second Amendment is so hard to understand? “A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.”Every gun law is unconstitutional. The amendment lacks the words and phrases “except for,” “unless,” or “but.”Speaking of the Second Amendment…Darkeh didn’t allow anyone to mention it.Infuriating, especially since Darkeh forbade anyone from bringing up the Second Amendment. From RedState:
The judge disrupted [Taylor defense attorney Vinoo] Varghese’s opening statement multiple times as he tried to set the stage for Taylor’s defense. Even further, she admonished the defense to refrain from mentioning the Second Amendment during the trial. Varghese told RedState:
She told us, ‘Do not bring the Second Amendment into this courtroom. It doesn’t exist here. So you can’t argue Second Amendment. This is New York.’
Varghese said he had filed the appropriate paperwork to “preserve these arguments for appeal” but that the judge “rejected these arguments, and she went out of her way to limit me.”
Taylor began gunsmithing during the COVID lockdown. He turned it into a business, legally buying all the parts from different companies.
“He ended up building, I believe it was eight pistols and five rifles or six rifles, AR-style rifles, and then eight or nine Glock pistols that he built,” said Varghese.
Taylor previously told RedState:
I found out that you can actually legally buy a receiver and you can machine that receiver to completion, and you buy your parts and you put them together and you’ve got a pistol or a rifle. And once I saw that I was hooked. I was like, ‘This is the coolest thing ever. This is the most cool thing you could possibly do in your machine shop.’
Darkeh sounded awful from the start:
During jury selection, Darkeh attempted to “rehabilitate potential jurors” who had shown “clear bias” against Taylor and his attorney.Taylor also pointed out that the judge would sustain objections when none were given by the prosecution. “That happened multiple times, at least a dozen or more times during the trial, where she would simply say ‘sustained’ without the prosecution having lodged an objection.”The engineer recounted what he felt on the day he was convicted.
In my mind, I just thought that this was something we prepared for. This was something that we were prepared to happen. It was always nice to think that we might get a jury that decided to nullify, but it was expected. I’ll say that. It wasn’t pleasant. It wasn’t a happy occasion, but it was expected.
Darke’s attitude soured more during the sentencing, “‘whining about the fact that she was mocked by people’ on social media.”
Varghese asked for three and a half years. Darkeh said no and gave Taylor ten because he “knew he was breaking the law and that she did not care about his political views.”
Taylor said the cops who escorted him couldn’t believe what just happened, acknowledging he has “a God-given right to keep and bear arms.” A sergeant told him the whole thing “was a travesty.”
Taylor’s family started a GiveSendGo to help with legal fees.
The fight isn’t over. They’re all prepared to go to the Supreme Court.
CLICK HERE FOR FULL VERSION OF THIS STORY