A 29-year-old man who illegally sold a loaded handgun and ammunition to undercover police in Bensalem Township in December 2020 was sentenced on Wednesday, Jan. 19, 2022, to serve up to seven years in state prison.

Xzayvien Jenkins, of Conestoga Street in Philadelphia, was charged with carrying a concealed firearm without a license, a third-degree felony, and illegal transfer of a firearm, a second-degree misdemeanor, following the sale. Jenkins pleaded guilty on Oct. 20 to both counts.

On Wednesday, Common Pleas Judge Brian T. McGuffin sentenced him to three to six years in state prison on the firearms not to be carried without a license offense and a consecutive two-to-12-month sentence on the sale of a firearm offense.

Bensalem Township Police charged Jenkins after he sold the .40-caliber Hi-Point handgun, with ammunition, for $900 during a police-controlled transaction on Bristol Pike. Jenkins had twice already been convicted in Philadelphia with firearms not to be carried without a license, served state prison time on his second conviction, and was still on probation from that conviction at the time of the sale. He was also on probation on a 2019 retail theft case out of Bensalem and will face a separate sentence on a probation violation.

Although Jenkins was precluded from obtaining a license to carry a concealed firearm based on his prior convictions, a count of Person Not to Possess Firearms, a first-degree felony, could not be pursued because Pennsylvania law does not currently list Carrying Concealed Firearms Without a License as a conviction that disqualifies one from future firearm possession.    

Last fall, the Bucks County District Attorney’s Office was awarded a Gun Violence Reduction Grant from the Pennsylvania Commission on Crime and Delinquency to be used to prevent and reduce gun violence in Bucks County neighborhoods.

The grant will be used for investigative equipment and overtime for municipal police officers and will be used to combat the straw purchase of firearms, thus reducing gun violence.

"I have committed our resources to focus on investigating and prosecuting straw firearms purchases, gun crimes, and gun violence over the next four years," District Attorney Matt Weintraub said. "This case is but one example of the progress we are making in this regard."

This case was investigated by the Bensalem Township Police Department, in conjunction with the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Violent Crimes Task Force, and was prosecuted by Deputy District Attorney David A. Keightly Jr.

Media Contact: Manuel Gamiz Jr., 215-348-6298, mgamiz@buckscounty.org