SCRANTON—The United States Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Pennsylvania announced that William Hill, age 40, of East Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania, was sentenced on January 10, 2022, to 33 months’ imprisonment by U.S. District Court Judge Malachy E. Mannion for a firearm offense.
According to United States Attorney John C. Gurganus, Hill previously pleaded guilty on June 28, 2021, to possession, barter, and sale of a stolen firearm. Hill, a heroin user, admitted to trading a firearm to codefendant Ronald McKenna in exchange for heroin. Hill’s sentence was enhanced because he fled the jurisdiction while on supervised release and was later apprehended in Florida.
McKenna had previously pleaded guilty to a firearms violation and was sentenced to 36 months in prison. A third codefendant, Drew Miller, also pleaded guilty to a firearms felony, and was sentenced to 42 months in prison.
The matter was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Pennsylvania State Police, and the Stroud Area Regional Police Department. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Francis P. Sempa and Sean A. Camoni prosecuted the case.
This matter was prosecuted as part of the Project Safe Neighborhoods (PSN) Program, the centerpiece of the Department of Justice’s violent crime reduction efforts. PSN is an evidence-based program proven to be effective at reducing violent crime. Through PSN, a broad spectrum of stakeholders work together to identify the most pressing violent crime problems in the community and develop comprehensive solutions to address them. As part of this strategy, PSN focuses enforcement efforts on the most violent offenders and partners with locally based prevention and reentry programs for lasting reductions in crime.
This case was also brought as part of a district wide initiative to combat the nationwide epidemic regarding the use and distribution of heroin. Led by the United States Attorney’s Office, the Heroin Initiative targets heroin traffickers operating in the Middle District of Pennsylvania and is part of a coordinated effort among federal, state and local law enforcement agencies to locate, apprehend, and prosecute individuals who commit heroin related offenses.
This effort is part of an Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Forces (OCDETF) operation. OCDETF identifies, disrupts, and dismantles the highest-level criminal organizations that threaten the United States using a prosecutor-led, intelligence-driven, multi-agency approach. Additional information about the OCDETF Program can be found at https://www.justice.gov/OCDETF.
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