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Woman guilty in gun case

Ramcharan supplied firearm allegedly used by teen in shooting

HOLLIDAYSBURG — An Altoona woman was convicted of supplying a gun used by a teenager in a June 12, 2021, daylight shooting at a busy Altoona intersection.

A Blair County jury took less than 10 minutes to render the pair of guilty verdicts against Alisa A. Ramcharan, 28, on a felony firearm offense and misdemeanor rendering false reports to authorities.

District Attorney Pete Weeks, who said Ramcharan could be facing either county or state prison time, said he will review sentencing guidelines in preparation for the Jan. 5 sentencing.

“While she wasn’t involved in the shooting, her actions in providing the firearm enabled a dangerous and unacceptable situation involving two groups of juveniles,” Weeks said.

Defense attorney Benjamin Kahn said he will be ready at the sentencing to ask Judge Timothy M. Sullivan for a probationary sentence on behalf of Ramcharan who has no prior record.

“I think some level of supervision would be appropriate in this case,” Kahn said after the one-day trial concluded. “But she’s not a malevolent or a dangerous individual.”

Sullivan directed a presentence investigation to be completed.

The judge also directed Ramcharan, who has been out of prison on unsecured bail, to maintain regular contact with the county adult parole office while she awaits sentencing.

Inside court, she nodded her head in acknowledgment of the judge’s instructions. Outside court, she embraced concerned family members.

Weeks asked the jury to convict Ramcharan on both offenses that developed while Altoona police were in the midst of investigating a late afternoon shooting involving teenagers at 17th Street and Seventh Avenue.

Ramcharan, on the day of the shooting, had gone into the police department and reported that her handgun was missing from her residence and she thought it may have been used in the shooting.

Detective Sgt. Terry Merritts told the jury that after he learned more about the shooting, he confronted Ramcharan about her earlier report. He told the jury she subsequently admitted that she allowed William Kern, 18, to have the gun, with the idea that he would pay her $250 for it.

Kern, who rendered guilty pleas in June for his role in the shooting and is currently incarcerated, was later identified as the person who sold what was believed to be Ramcharan’s handgun to 17-year-old Preston Weakland of Altoona. Weakland remains accused of firing a 9 mm handgun at two people and is awaiting trial on attempted homicide and related offenses.

Kahn tried to convince the jury that Ramcharan wasn’t guilty of transferring the firearm to a person ineligible to receive it because it was Kern who had taken the gun from Ramcharan to “try it out” and then kept it.

Karn also challenged the claim that Ramcharan had made false reports to police. The defense attorney said his client didn’t know where her gun was and he pointed out that the gun used in the shooting was never recovered.

“There’s nothing to substantiate that the gun used in the shooting was the one that belonged to my client,” Kahn told the jurors in his closing.

Weeks asked the jury to rely on their common sense to figure out what’s going on.

“Within an hour or two of shots being fired, she’s at the police station saying her gun is missing,” he said. “Common sense dictates that that’s absurd.”

Weeks also asked the jury to conclude that Ramcharan went to police and lied in an attempt to keep herself out of trouble. He said she knew she couldn’t transfer ownership of her gun without going through an authorized dealer.

Trial testimony also revealed that an authorized dealer wouldn’t have transferred ownership of Ramcharan’s handgun to Kern because Kern was less than 21 years old and because Kern had a juvenile criminal record.

Weeks told the jury in his closing: “This case establishes why we have laws requiring someone to go to a gun dealer and get a background check run before they get a gun.”

Mirror Staff Writer Kay Stephens is at 814-946-7456.

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