Military service sways judge in gun case sentencing

A Mt. Pleasant man would have been given more jail time on a firearms conviction if he weren’t a wounded veteran, a judge said.

Prosecutors argued for multiple consecutive sentences that totaled more than 40 years behind bars be imposed against Michael Charles Lint, 36, for convictions to charges that he illegally possessed nine firearms in 2019.

But Westmoreland County Common Pleas Court Judge Scott Mears sentenced Lint to a 15-year prison sentence in large part because he received a Purple Heart after he was wounded while serving in Afghanistan with the U.S. Marines, the judge said.

“That’s enough, his service, for me to decide not to sentence him to consecutive sentences,” Mears said. “If this was his first charge I would consider a mitigated sentence but this is not.”

The judge ordered Lint serve eight concurrent sentences of 7 1/2 to 15 years in prison. Lint will receive credit for the more than three years he has served in jail since his arrest.

Assistant District Attorney Adam Barr asked that Lint receive consecutive sentences for each of the nine counts he was convicted.

“He is not entitled to a volume discount. There has to be some consecutive sentences because it’s not getting through to him,” Barr said.

Lint was convicted of nine counts of illegal possession of a firearm during a trial in May. According to court records, Lint was a convicted felon who was barred from possessing guns. Police said Lint was convicted of felony theft charges in 2009 and pleaded guilty in 2016 to aggravated assault for an incident in Pittsburgh.

In the current case Lint was charged in May 2019 after an ex-girlfriend told authorities that she gave him weapons that he refused to return after they separated.

According to court records, police found four weapons and ammunition at Lint’s work; and five more guns in a safe at his home.

Lint initially claimed he did not own the weapons. Police said two of the guns found in Lint’s possession were previously reported as stolen in 2013.

Lint faces another trial scheduled to begin in September in which he is charged with the theft of four of those weapons and allegations that he attempted to remove the serial numbers from the guns.