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Christian Cordero-Gotay, 29, of Brooklyn was being arrested Clinton Township police during an August 2020 traffic stop on Route 22 when his companion, Genesis Bertefabian, suddenly jumped behind the wheel and sped off, Acting U.S. Attorney Rachael A. Honig said.
The vehicle crashed into a Lebanon restaurant minutes later, Honig said.
Bertefabian ran into woods behind Chelsea’s Restaurant and tried to hide a 9mm Glock-type gun that had been in the vehicle, according to a complaint on file in U.S. District Court in Newark.
The gun was fitted with a conversion device commonly called a “Glock switch,” converting the semiautomatic pistol into a machinegun, authorities said.
A warranted search of the vehicle turned up two high-capacity magazines loaded with 9mm ammunition, Honig said.
Cordero-Gotay took a deal from the government rather than face trial, pleading guilty to charges that include being a convicted felon in possession of a machine gun.
He'll have to serve out just about all of the sentence because there's no parole in the federal prison system. U.S. District Court Judge Susan D. Wigenton also sentenced Cordero-Gotay to three years of supervised release.
Charges against Bertefabian, 28, are still pending.
Honig credited special agents of the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives' Newark Division and Clinton Township police with the investigation leading to the plea and sentencing, secured by Special Assistant U.S. Attorney Stacey E. Zyriek Enriquez of her Violent Crimes Unit in Newark.
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