Richmond man who hid gun with 6-year-old nephew sentenced

(KRON) — A Richmond man who used his 6-year-old nephew to hide a loaded gun from police was sentenced Tuesday to serve 46 months in federal prison. U.S. District Judge Araceli Martínez-Olguín sentenced Darneko Yates after he was convicted at trial.

The gun-hiding incident happened on August 27, 2023 outside of Yates’ relative’s house in San Pablo. Police officers had followed Yates’ vehicle for several blocks while his young nephew and niece were in the backseat.

At the time, 30-year-old Yates was on parole for convictions including carjacking and solicitation to commit murder.

“When Yates’s six-year-old nephew got out of the car, Yates urged the child to go inside the house. The child moved slowly and kept his back to the officers. When officers looked at the front of the child, they saw an object tucked into the front of his pants,” the U.S. Attorney Northern District of California wrote.

Officers found a loaded gun was inside the young boy’s pants, prosecutors said.

The gun had a conversion device that allows a shooter to fire an endless stream of bullets with one pull of the trigger, prosecutors added. U.S. Attorney Ismail Ramsey said the uncle’s decisions could have resulted in a tragedy.

Yates was found guilty of being a felon in possession of a firearm following a one-day trial in January. The case was the result of an investigation by the FBI, the Contra Costa County Sheriff’s Office, and the San Pablo Police Department.