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GREENWICH, Conn. – Thomas Belluci, 51, of Greenwich, was sentenced to a year and a day in prison Thursday for possessing unregistered machine guns, according to a press release.
At his sentencing in Federal Court in New Haven, Belluci was also given three years of supervised release and ordered to serve two months of home confinement following his release from prison, perform 100 hours of community service and pay a $6,000 fine.
According to court documents and statements made in court, Greenwich Police Officers went to Belluci's Cutler Road home on Aug. 22, 2011, after a neighbor reported hearing shots fired.
Belluci initially said he did not hear any gunshots and allowed officers to enter his home. He showed officers only one side of the house, claiming that the living room encompassed the entire house and that there was no second floor.
After Belluci led officers through a door, which he first said was to a closet but, in fact, led to a hallway that opened into other rooms, Belluci ran into a room and locked the door. Two officers forced opened the door and saw Belluci bent over several long gun cases on the floor.
When the officers asked Belluci if he had fired a weapon earlier, he admitted that he had fired a handgun out his kitchen window. However, he would not tell the officers where the firearm was. The officers attempted to restrain Belluci, but he resisted, struggled with one officer and was Tased by the other. Belluci was placed into an ambulance and taken to the hospital.
A subsequent search of his home revealed more than 160 firearms, including 10 machine guns, at least eight of which were operational and fired multiple rounds with a single squeeze of the trigger.
Officers seized the firearms, as well as thousands of rounds of ammunition and other accessories. None of the machine guns were registered in the National Firearms Registration and Transfer Record.
Belluci was arrested on federal charges on May 11, 2012, and detained until his release on a $500,000 surety bond on July 30. On Oct. 9, he pleaded guilty to one count of unlawful possession of a machine gun. He has been ordered to report to prison on Feb. 14.
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