Portland, Ore. - U.S. District Court Judge Michael W. Mosman sentenced Lorenzo Laron Jones, age 34, to 262 months imprisonment today. A federal trial jury convicted Jones of being a felon in possession of a firearm on January 11, 2008.
The federal case arose from a downtown Portland gang shooting incident in the early morning hours of August 8, 2005, in which 50 shots were fired by five different firearms. The gang activity resulted in the death of 29 year-old Adrian Bible and threatened the lives of many bystanders who were in the vicinity of the Portland nightclub where the gang dispute broke out.
Jones, a long-time Hoover Crip gang member, drove a van away from the shooting scene with two other Hoover Crip associates, Corey Hudson and Deandros Brown, in what became a high-speed chase into Northeast Portland. Portland Police seized two firearms after the men were apprehended. Forensic evidence collected by Portland homicide detectives showed the weapons seized had been used in the earlier shooting, which was a gang rivalry incident between Hoover Crips and Rolling 60’s Crips.
Jones was sentenced under the Armed Career Criminal Act due to prior felony convictions. His prior felony convictions, beginning in 1991, include assault with a firearm, two incidents of unlawful use of a firearm and delivery of cocaine. In passing sentence, Judge Mosman described the shooting incident as one of the worst in Portland’s history.
Jones was the last of the three defendants sentenced in relation to the case. Hudson was convicted by a federal jury in 2006 and sentenced to 96 months in federal prison. Brown pled guilty in 2006 and is serving an 87- month sentence.
The case was investigated by the Portland Police Bureau and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorneys Thomas H. Edmonds and Amy E. Potter.
