DOJ Seal

Department of Justice

U.S. Attorney's Office
District of Massachusetts

For Immediate Release

Thursday, February 26, 2015
Carmen M. Ortiz
, United States Attorney
Contact: Christina Dilorio-Sterling

Springfield Felon Sentenced for Making Threats with Firearm

BOSTON – A Springfield man was sentenced today in U.S. District Court in Worcester in connection with using a firearm to threaten his parents.

Jamel Bolden, 22, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Timothy S. Hillman to 78 months in prison and three years of supervised release. In November 2014, Bolden pleaded guilty to conspiring to illegally possess a firearm and ammunition and conspiring to distribute cocaine.

On June 3, 2013, during a domestic dispute with his mother and his stepfather, Bolden brandished a silver long-barreled revolver and told his stepfather that he would “lay him down” (i.e., shoot him).

Bolden had been previously convicted of three counts of armed robbery and was currently on probation for these offenses. Immediately after Bolden threatened to shoot his stepfather, Bolden fled from the police and hid the revolver at a nearby elementary school. Bolden has also agreed to pleaded guilty to assault with a dangerous weapon in a related case in Hampden Superior Court.

United States Attorney Carmen M. Ortiz; Daniel J. Kumor, Special Agent in Charge of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives, Boston Field Office; and Springfield Police Commissioner John Barbieri made the announcement today. The case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Steven H. Breslow of Ortiz's Springfield Branch Office.

Boston Field Division