INDIANA — – Michael Scott Barber, age 22, of Mishawaka, Indiana, was sentenced before South Bend District Court Judge Robert L. Miller, Jr. for his role in the break in and theft of firearms from a federally licensed firearms dealer, announced U.S Attorney Kirsch.
Barber was sentenced to 210 months imprisonment followed by 2 years of supervised release on federal charges. The federal sentence is to be served consecutively with two separate state sentences.
According to documents in this case, Barber was convicted by jury of theft of firearms from a FFL, being a felon in possession and possession of one or more stolen firearms after a three-day trial that concluded on May 9, 2018. On February 9, 2017, Barber went to hunting supply store in Shipshewana, Indiana to scope out the store for the best way to break in and steal firearms. Barber and two accomplices drove to the store in the middle of the night. Barber and one of the accomplices broke into the store and stole fifteen firearms and a crossbow. Over the next several days, Barber distributed some of the stolen firearms to others.
The day after the break in, Barber returned to the area of the theft in an unsuccessful attempt to retrieve a firearm that he had dropped when he fled the store.
Law enforcement recovered eight of the stolen firearms, one in Chicago during the arrest of a person suspected of shooting another in the chest and another that was used in a Chicago Heights armed robbery committed by a person who was on parole for second degree murder. Seven of the guns are still missing.
Barber has previously been convicted of second degree home invasion in Michigan along with burglary, theft and auto theft in Indiana. Before being apprehended on these charges, Barber committed and was convicted of assault by strangulation and assault with intent to commit great bodily harm in Michigan. Ten days after breaking into the Shipshewana located FFL, Barber fled from and attacked a Michigan state trooper.
