Man hid loaded Glock in 6-year-old nephew’s pants, California officials say
A man accused of hiding a loaded gun in his young nephew’s pants so police wouldn’t find it in a search was convicted in federal court in California, prosecutors said.
The gun that Darneko Yates, 30, of Richmond, was accused of concealing in the 6-year-old boy’s pants was a Glock with 11 rounds of ammunition and a conversion switch that “allows a shooter to fire an endless stream of bullets with one pull of the trigger,” according to prosecutors.
Yates was found guilty in a bench trial Jan. 17 of being a felon in possession of a firearm, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of California said in a news release.
McClatchy News reached out to his attorney Jan. 23 and was awaiting a response.
Yates was on parole in connection with three felony convictions when police tried to pull him over in August 2023 for an infraction, prosecutors said.
Yates stopped in front of a relative’s home several blocks away, police said.
His niece and nephew were in the back, and when the 6-year-old boy stepped out of the car, “Yates urged (him) to go inside the house,” according to prosecutors.
The boy “moved slowly and kept his back to the officers,” prosecutors said.
Police saw something tucked into his pants and found the gun, according to prosecutors.
“During the traffic stop, Yates sent text messages telling an individual to come get the child out of the car before the police searched the vehicle” and admitting the boy had his gun, prosecutors said.
Yates “inexcusably endangered a young child,” U.S. Attorney Ismail J. Ramsey said in the release, adding that a possible tragedy was avoided thanks to “careful work” by the officers.
Yates is scheduled to be sentenced in April and faces up to 15 years in prison.
Richmond is about a 20-mile drive northeast from San Francisco.
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