Sentell Smith (Steven Hirsch)
A gun-running thug who liked to quote from “Scarface” — and who was caught on police surveillance selling an AR-15-style assault rifle on a street corner in Chelsea — was sentenced to 42 years prison today for selling a total 11 guns.
“You f— with me, you f—ing with the best,” Sentell Smith, a 32-year-old Alabama native, had boasted on one surveillance tape, channelling Al Pacino’s character in the iconic ’80s gangster movie.
Smith had taken the stand to insist that he was “entrapped” into selling weaponry, including the .223-cal. Remington semiautomatic assault rifle he sold for $2,000 to an undercover parked at 27th Street and Seventh Avenue in July, 2011.
Jurors screened tape of Smith carrying the massive, camouflage-patterned weapon —- hidden in a long white “body pillow” — into the undercover’s car, and tossing it into the back seat.
Smith also claimed he never pocketed a penny of the guns — including two handgun sales he brokered on a Rikers pay phone.
It took a Manhattan jury just five hours to vote him guilty last month of a 21-count indictment.
“This defendant’s attempt to put guns on the streets of New York could have had deadly results if he had been successful,” Manhattan DA Cyrus Vance, Jr., said in a written statement after the sentencing.
The DA thanked the heroic undercovers who risked their lives to pose as gun buyers, and credited his Violent Criminal Enterprises Unit and the NYPD Firearm Investigation Unit with taking Smith and his guns off the street.