Court rejects appeal in gun trafficking case

Listen to this article

JACKSON, Miss. (AP) – A court has dismissed the appeal of a man serving a 10-year sentence for trafficking guns from Mississippi to Illinois, including one used in the slaying of a Chicago police officer.

Twenty-nine-year-old Quawi Gates of Chicago was convicted and sentenced in 2010 on charges of aiding and abetting in making false records for a firearms dealer. The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals denied Gate’s appeal as frivolous in a ruling earlier this month.

He was accused of recruiting students at the private Rust College in Holly Springs, Miss., to buy guns in Mississippi. Authorities say the guns were taken to Chicago gang members.

Authorities have said one of the guns was used in the slaying of off-duty Chicago police officer Thomas Wortham IV in May 2010.

Wortham, 30, had just returned from a second tour of duty in Iraq with the Wisconsin National Guard and was killed when four men tried to steal his motorcycle, according to the news release.

The men shot Wortham, then fired at his father, a retired police officer, when he tried to help. Two of the suspected thieves were shot, one fatally. The other two took off in a car, running over the officer as they fled.