DOJ Seal

Department of Justice

U.S. Attorney's Office
District of Connecticut

For Immediate Release

Monday, June 23, 2014
Deirdre M. Daly
, United States Attorney
Contact: Tom Carson

New London Man Pleads Guilty To Federal Gun Charge

Deirdre M. Daly, United States Attorney for the District of Connecticut, announced that MAURICE L. MILLIGAN, 35, of New London, pleaded guilty today before U.S. Magistrate Judge Thomas P. Smith in Hartford to one count of possession of a firearm by a previously convicted felon.

According to court documents and statements made in court, at approximately 11:30 p.m. on April 22, 2013, New London Police received reports of shots fired in the vicinity of a convenience store located on Ocean Avenue near the intersection of Evergreen and Sherman Streets.  Responding officers did not find any victim of the shooting, but did locate and seize four spent 9mm Winchester shell casings in the immediate area.  The investigation determined that two males had had a verbal altercation inside the convenience store and, shortly thereafter, a number of shots had been fired outside the business.  Review of video from inside and outside the store led to the identification of MILLIGAN as the probable shooter.     

On April 25, 2013, New London Police observed MILLIGAN sitting in the driver’s seat of a parked vehicle.  Officers ordered MILLIGAN to exit the car and saw that he was wearing a bullet-proof vest.  Officers then searched the vehicle and recovered from under the driver’s seat a Glock, Model 17, 9mm semi-automatic pistol with an obliterated serial number.  The handgun was loaded with 19 rounds of Winchester 9mm ammunition.  Further examination of the gun revealed that the serial number on the frame of the weapon had been removed.

A ballistics comparison made of the shell casings recovered on the night of April 22 with the Glock seized from under the driver’s seat of the car MILLIGAN was driving on April 25 established that the Glock was the weapon that fired the shots.

Prior to April 2013, MILLIGAN had been convicted in the Queens County (N.Y.) Supreme Court of third degree criminal possession of a loaded firearm and second degree robbery.

It is a violation of federal law for a person previously convicted of a felony offense to possess a firearm or ammunition that has moved in interstate or foreign commerce.  It is also a violation of federal law for a convicted felon to wear protective body armor, and for an individual who has been convicted of a violent felony offense to possess body armor.

MILLIGAN is scheduled to be sentenced by U.S. District Judge Vanessa L. Bryant on September 10, 2014, at which time he faces a maximum term of imprisonment of 10 years.  He has been detained since his arrest on April 25, 2013.

This matter has been investigated by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, the New London Police Department and the Office of the State’s Attorney for the Judicial District of New London.  The case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney John H. Durham.

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Boston Field Division