From Deseret News archives:
Two charges dropped in gun purchases
Ethiopian man still facing 3 counts in Orem incidents
Kidus Chane Yohannes, 20, sat quietly during a preliminary hearing Thursday afternoon, listening to attorneys go over gun-purchase records in painstaking detail.
Yohannes had been charged in 4th District Court with four felonies of providing false information during a background check prior to purchasing two AK-47 variants at VanWagenen's Finance in Orem last October.
A variant is a gun that looks like an AK-47 but is not an automatic weapon.
Defense attorney Richard Gale argued that his client shouldn't face four separate charges.
"According to statute, it's not how many times he gave false statements," Gale said. "It's how many times he purchased a firearm."
Prosecutor Donna Kelly argued however, that Yohannes went into the pawn shop four times and verified his wrong identification number each time, and that constitutes a violation.
Judge Gary Stott agreed with Gale and bound Yohannes over on only two gun-related charges.
Yohannes was also bound over on a third-degree felony charge of unlawful possession or acquisition of an ATM card, which belonged to his roommate. He will enter a plea Oct. 18.
Yohannes was arrested June 8 after his roommates came to police with concerns about his apparent fascination with killing officers and U.S. soldiers.
Orem and Provo officers had been investigating the gun purchases and said they discovered false numbers. That information, combined with the alleged threats, led to the arrest.
"The number is not a valid number or a valid registration number, and it's not the same format that's used for that purpose, nor has that number ever been issued," testified Orem Police Sgt. Randy Crowther.
The 10-digit, hyphen-divided number reportedly was very different from the original eight-digit, letter-preceded number Yohannes originally wrote on the form to buy his first gun.
"As far as exhibit one, we've offered that for the purpose of showing that he did know what his correct number was, because he's written it on the bottom of the two other forms," Kelly said. "He knew what his number was but intentionally misled, and intended to mislead, Mr. VanWagenen in order to purchase the firearms."
Store owner Norman VanWagenen took the stand and testified Yohannes had visited his store four times to purchase guns but only purchased two weapons.
Two of the visits were follow-ups because the background checks took longer than anticipated.
But each time Yohannes was approved to buy a gun after VanWagenen checked Yohannes' alien identification number with the Bureau of Criminal Identification.
"You called the BCI and gave them this number, and they told you it's OK to sell this (gun) to Kidus Yohannes?" Gale asked.
"Right," VanWagenen said.
"That was knowing also that he was a citizen of Ethiopia, and the BCI said that's OK?"
"Yes."
E-mail: sisraelsen@desnews.com
