Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives

NORFOLK, Va. – A Suffolk woman was sentenced yesterday to 12 months in prison and six months under house arrest for helping her husband possess firearms after he was convicted of a felony and attempting to obstruct the investigation against him.

According to court documents, Christina Danielle Patterson, 42, helped her husband and co-defendant buy, sell, and keep in their home more than 20 guns. She then lied about doing so during an interview with ATF agents; attempted to contact a witness in a ploy to have him generate a false sales receipt showing that she, rather than her husband, was the seller of a gun; changed the registered business address of the family business in an attempt to invalidate a federal search warrant; and stole business records and other evidence from a third party, among many other acts of obstruction carried out at her husband’s direction.

Once Patterson was charged in a superseding indictment and detained pending trial, she agreed to cooperate, but then continued to undermine the investigation against her husband by giving statements to law enforcement that contradicted several other cooperating witnesses and

that falsely exonerated her from wrongdoing. As her husband’s trial approached, she rejected her signed statement of facts and denied committing any crimes, all while under oath during a social security administrative proceeding for disability benefits.

This case is part of Project Safe Neighborhoods (PSN), a program bringing together all levels of law enforcement and the communities they serve to reduce violent crime and make our neighborhoods safer for everyone. Attorney General Jeff Sessions reinvigorated PSN in 2017 as part of the Department’s renewed focus on targeting violent criminals, directing all U.S. Attorney’s Offices to work in partnership with federal, state, local, and tribal law enforcement and the local community to develop effective, locally-based strategies to reduce violent crime.

G. Zachary Terwilliger, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, and Thomas L. Chittum, III, Special Agent in Charge of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives’ (ATF) Washington Field Division, made the announcement after sentencing by U.S. District Judge Raymond A. Jackson. Assistant U.S. Attorney William B. Jackson prosecuted the case.

A copy of this press release is located on the website of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Virginia. Related court documents and information is located on the website of the District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia or on PACER by searching for Case No. 2:17-cr-114.

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