Geary couple in court over 3D-printed firearms
Leslie Dawn Boyd, 26, and Brady Geoffrey Storey, 30, face joint weapons charges
A Geary couple accused of 3D-printing firearms at their home this summer are set to return to court next month to elect mode of trial and enter pleas.
Leslie Dawn Boyd, 26, and Brady Geoffrey Storey, 30, both of Broad Road in Geary, made their first appearances in Fredericton provincial court to answer to seven joint charges alleging firearms crimes.
They’re accused of the following:
manufacturing firearms - 3D-printed handguns and eight 3D-printed handgun frames - without authorization
possessing those 3D-printed items for the purpose of transferring them, knowing they’re weren’t authorized to do so;
possessing prohibited firearms (the 3D-printed handguns) with readily accessible ammunition without authorization or a licence;
possessing prohibited firearms - a resolver and two 3D-printed handguns - without a licence;
possessing the same three firearms without a licence or registration certificate
possessing prohibited weapons - five sets of brass knuckles;
and possessing prohibited devices, namely one auto-conversion kit and six overcapacity magazines.
Fredericton defence lawyers Patrick Hurley and Robert Digdon addressed the court Wednesday on behalf of Boyd and Storey, respectively, though both noted they hadn’t been officially retained as counsel for the defendants.
They said Boyd and Storey needed time to finalize that process and to obtain disclosure of the Crown file, and they asked for a three-week adjournment.
Judge Cameron Gunn set the matters over to Nov. 8 for election of mode of trial and pleas.
The charges against the couple arose after an RCMP raid and search at a Geary home.
The New Brunswick RCMP, in a news release issued June 23, said members of its provincial crime reduction unit launched an investigation that month into the manufacture of 3D-printed guns after its members received information from the national police force’s integrated firearms trafficking team at its Montreal division.
That investigation led to officers obtaining a search warrant and executing it at a residence on Broad Road in Geary on June 20, it said.
“During the search, police seized 11 firearms, including restricted and prohibited firearms, eight 3D-printed handgun frames, eight prohibited devices (over-capacity magazines), four body-armour carriers with plates, and six prohibited weapons,” the release said.
“Police also seized prohibited 3D printed firearm devices, one prohibited firearm conversion kit, several thousand rounds of ammunition and other firearm manufacturing parts.”
It noted a man and a woman - now known to be Storey and Boyd - were arrested at the scene and released on conditions with promises to appear in provincial court at a later date.
The local investigation was part of a larger police operation led by the Sûreté du Québec called Project Reproduction, a nationwide operation focused on the manufacture and sales of privately made firearms, the release said.
“Privately made firearms are illegal, untraceable, and pose risks to the general public as well as the user,” it said.
Don MacPherson can be contacted at ftonindependent@gmail.com.
I bet they thought they were real geniuses .