Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives

KANSAS CITY, Mo. – Tammy Dickinson, United States Attorney for the Western District of Missouri, announced that a Kansas City, Mo., man was sentenced in federal court today for stealing a firearm from a murder victim.

Alfred C. Crater, Jr., 40, of Kansas City, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Howard F. Sachs to nine years and two months in federal prison without parole.

On Dec. 4, 2015, Crater pleaded guilty to possessing a stolen firearm. Crater admitted that he was in possession of a Hi-Point .40-caliber pistol, which he had stolen from a homicide scene on Feb. 19, 2012. Crater took the pistol from Anthony Wayne Van Buren, a murder victim, before the police arrived at the crime scene. Crater was later stopped by police in the area of Linwood and Indiana, Kansas City, Mo., and found to be in possession of the stolen pistol.

Crater has nine felony convictions, including a prior federal felony conviction for being a felon in possession of a firearm, and was on state probation at the time of the offense.

This case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney D. Michael Green. It was investigated by the Kansas City, Mo., Police Department and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

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This news release, as well as additional information about the office of the United States Attorney for the Western District of Missouri, is available on-line at

http://www.justice.gov/wdmo

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