A San Diego gun store owner convicted of assisting a former SDSO captain in his side business of unlawful firearms sales was sentenced to six months in prison, plus six months of home confinement.
San Diego jeweler Leo Hamel was sentenced Friday to one year of probation, plus 100 days of home confinement, for buying firearms illegally from former San.
A gun-selling scheme run out of the Rancho San Diego sheriff's substation may have been broader than initially thought, according to evidence from the trial of gun store owner Gio Tilotta
Prosecutors said Giovanni Tilotta worked with Sheriff's Department Capt. Marco Garmo and others to make "straw purchases": falsely claiming to be the buyers of firearms while actually purchasing the guns on behalf of others, including the prominent San Diego jeweler Leo Hamel.