Army vet gets 11 years for Massachusetts gun heist

By Christen Smith

James W. Morales. (Photo: Associated Press)
An Army reservist will spend 11 years in prison after admitting he stole more than a dozen guns from a military vault in Massachusetts.
James W. Morales, 37, pleaded guilty last year after cell phone records, surveillance footage and DNA connected him to the November 2015 heist at the Lincoln Stoddard U.S. Army Reserve Center in Worcester.
According to court documents, Morales broke a kitchen window and made his way into the drill room, a large hangar-like structure with a weapons vault the size of a shipping container stored inside. He cut through the roof of the vault with a power saw and a pry bar, lowered himself through the hole and stole six M-4 carbines and 10 9mm M-11 handguns. Security cameras captured images of Morales loading black duffel bags into his rented BMW X1. Investigators also discovered Morales’s blood left behind on the sharp edges of the hole cut into the vault’s roof and smeared on the walls, according to court documents.
Morales also cut off his ankle monitoring bracelet assigned to him by a Superior Court judge for charges of child rape and indecent assault on a minor younger than 14-years-old, triggering an arrest warrant.

Source: Guns.com