A Maryland man is off the hook for felony gun charges after Manhattan prosecutors agreed to a no-jail, no-probation misdemeanor deal on a weapon found in his Muse Hotel room in Midtown this past Spring.
Stephen Grant, 63, of Eden, Md., had faced a mandatory minimum of 3 and a half years prison on his original charges of felony possession of the loaded handgun, which was legally registered in his home state but which he was not permitted to carry in New York.
Instead, prosecutors did not seek an indictment against him, and allowed him to plead guilty to fourth degree weapons possession, a blanket misdemeanor that covers any gun, knife, brass knuckles or the like.
“The DA deserves enormous credit for exercising discretion and allowing him to avoid the mandatory minimum prison sentence,” said Grant’s lawyer, Robert Gottlieb. “Thankfully they were willing to look at all the circumstances.”
The DA’s office did not comment on whether the same deal would be offered in two related cases which The Post has gone to bat for: Meredith Graves, the Tennesseean tourist busted trying to check her gun at the 9/11 Memorial, and Ryan Jerome, the Indiana jeweler and former Marine tail gunner busted trying to check his gun at the Empire State Building.
Both Graves and Jerome were packing guns that were legally registered in their home states, and face felony weapons charges carrying the same three and a half year prison minimum dodged today by the Maryland man.