By james art 
WILMINGTON, N.C. (WECT) – A “career offender” has been convicted in a case involving possession of a gun used in a fatal shooting in 2022, according to U.S. Attorney Michael Easley Jr. for the Eastern District of North Carolina.
Desmond Antonio Hines, who was also known as “Head,” was sentenced to 196 months (16 years and four months) in prison after a federal jury found him guilty of illegal possession of a firearm.
Authorities say a firearm was used in a shootout that killed a man two months before Hines was arrested on March 31, 2022.
In 2020, he was arrested by Wilmington police on drug charges stemming from a traffic stop. When authorities tried to arrest him in 2022 on federal charges related to that traffic stop, Hines allegedly fled.
“After officers located Hines and took him into custody, 911 reported a call from residents in the area who saw a man matching Hines’ description and driving a minivan stop the vehicle, walk to a patch of azalea bushes and throw something into the bushes before I leave,” the message said. “When the bushes were pulled back, witnesses saw a firearm. When police responded to the scene, which was about a half-mile from where Hines was arrested, they found a Glock 27 Gen 4 .40-caliber semi-automatic handgun with an extended magazine containing 20 live rounds.
“Ten of those cartridges were distinctive red tip cartridges known as Hornady Critical Defense. During a search of the defendant’s residence, forensic experts found a box with the same ammunition, in which ten cartridges were missing. Testing of the firearm later confirmed the presence of Hines’ DNA.
Ballistics tests matched the gun to the fatal shooting.
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