OAKLAND — An Oakland man was sentenced to three years in federal prison for a gun possession charge that came about after federal agents gathered evidence he was selling guns online.
Victor Covian-Perez, 23, was arrested in late 2018 after agents with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms spent weeks collecting screenshots and private messages from his Instagram account. During the investigation, Covian-Perez allegedly posted pictures of himself holding guns, and even hospital pictures of his hand after he accidentally shot one of his fingers partially off.
Covian-Perez pleaded guilty to being “an alien in possession of firearms and ammunition,” as part of a plea deal with the U.S. Attorney’s office. He will likely be deported after serving his sentence, according to his lawyer’s court filings.
“I am truly sorry for what I did and hopefully others learn from my mistakes,” Covian-Perez wrote in a letter to the judge. “With this being said, I apologize to everyone in this courtroom specially (sic) my daughter because I know what it feels like to grow up without a father at a young age.”
In 2013, when Covian-Perez was 17, he was arrested and charged with vehicular manslaughter after he ran a red light at Bancroft Avenue and Church Street, T-boning a car and killing a 75-year-old man. According to federal prosecutors, Covian-Perez, a member of the Norteño gang, had just committed a drive-by shooting targeting a rival Sureño member’s home and was speeding away.
The victim, Robert Wollo, died at the accident. Covian-Perez received a juvenile sentence of 106 months, prosecutors said.
In 2018, as a free man, Covian-Perez had his pregnant girlfriend buy guns for him, then advertised them on his Instagram account, “dirtylife_v,” prosecutors said. In private messages uncovered by federal agents an included in court records, Covian-Perez had conversations where he advertised gun accessories designed to make a pistol into an automatic weapon.
His postings also “claimed armed robbery of marijuana dealers that included him pointing a pistol at one of the victims and robbing the victims of 10 pounds of marijuana and over $10,000 dollars,” assistant U.S. Attorney Thomas Green wrote in a sentencing memorandum. When Covian-Perez’s home was raided in November 2018, agents found three guns in his possession.
The defense painted Covian-Perez as a “complex man” with a potential for redemption.
“He is remorseful for his behavior and how this conduct has affected his entire family, including his parents who are devastated by his conduct and that he will be deported after he serves his sentence,” his attorney, Angela Millella Hansen, wrote in a sentencing memorandum.
