Deer-hunting felon gets 15-year prison sentence
By Robert Baird
TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Saturday, April 26, 2003
A Beaver County man who has three convictions for violent felonies complained Friday to a federal judge that he didn't know that he was prohibited from hunting deer with a rifle.
But U.S. District Judge Terrence McVerry told Jack C. Altsman, 43, of Fourth Avenue, Beaver Falls, that he had, indeed, violated the armed career criminal provisions of the federal firearms law.
McVerry sentenced Altsman to a mandatory 15 years in prison for possession of a firearm by a convicted felon.
A deputy game commissioner spotted Altsman with a Remington rifle in Hovey, Armstrong County, after he had been deer hunting on Nov. 26, 2001.
"I wasn't in a bank with an automatic weapon. I wasn't car-jacking someone ... I wasn't in a bar with a gun. I was deer hunting," Altsman said.
McVerry said Altsman had pleaded guilty to the charges in November before U.S. District Judge Donald Lee, who has since retired.
McVerry ordered Altsman to serve three years on supervised release after he completes his prison term.
Altsman said he didn't go to trial and present a defense because he believed he would face additional time if convicted by a jury.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Margaret Picking said Altsman has previous convictions in two burglaries and for criminal attempt.
Altsman said his father, who has Alzheimer's disease, hunts and fishes, and Altsman is the only one who can take him hunting.
McVerry said the sentencing caused him "great difficulty," because Altsman was hunting and may not have known he wasn't permitted to possess a gun.
He told Altsman he had no alternative but to impose the mandatory 15-year sentence and that he could have been sentenced to nearly 19 years.
Also the local paper says that he has 3 felony convictions.