‘Living amongst citizens’: Unregistered sex offender in Seattle sentenced to 3+ years for ‘ghost gun’

A 40-year-old man was sentenced to 37 months in prison on Monday for illegally possessing a loaded “ghost gun” after he was living in Seattle as an unregistered sex offender.

In 2011, Raymond Lawrence Massey was convicted in Clark County of assault with sexual motivation. After Massey served more than seven years in state custody, he absconded from community supervision and failed to register in King County as a sex offender, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) announced.

Massey was convicted of sexually assaulting a 15-year-old while claiming to be armed with a firearm, according to records filed in the case. Massey was sentenced to 81 months to life in prison and was required to register as a sex offender.

Massey was found with a privately made, untraceable handgun

Massey left the area where he was on community corrections and moved to the Seattle area instead. He never registered as a sex offender. Department of Corrections located Massey and found a polymer 9mm firearm, which was equipped with a red dot sight on the barrel.

The gun was privately manufactured, making it a “ghost gun” as it lacks a serial number that can be traced by law enforcement.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Cecelia Gregson wrote to the court asking for a guidelines sentence, noting Massey’s behavior was “troubling.”

“Once located, the defendant ran from officers and refused commands to comply with arrest. Once caught, the defendant alerted officers to the fact that he was armed with a non-serialized handgun with an extended capacity magazine and a red dot optic designed to assist with precision aiming,” Gregson wrote. “The fact that the defendant committed this offense while on supervision is problematic in and of itself. Further troubling, the defendant had then twice escaped from Department of Corrections supervision for a crime of sexual violence, was not compliant with sex offender registration, and was living amongst citizens unaware of the risk he posed to their safety.”

The DOJ noted Massey will be on three years of federal supervised release subsequent to his prison term. Massey is also required to register as a sex offender.

U.S. District Judge Kymberly K. Evanson said Massey will have the benefit of supervision in the federal system as the “probation officers are extraordinary and want [Massey] to succeed” in a crime-free life.

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