Boston Career Criminal Sentenced to More Than 17 Years in Prison for Drug and Firearm Charges

BOSTON – A career criminal was sentenced today in federal court in Boston for drug trafficking and firearm charges.

Damien Bynoe, 44, of Roxbury, was sentenced by U.S. District Court Judge William G. Young to 210 months in prison and six years of supervised release. In January 2020, Bynoe pleaded guilty to one count each of being a felon in possession of a firearm and ammunition and possession with intent to distribute heroin and cocaine.

“This sentence will ensure that the defendant will not continue to ravage the Roxbury community and the lives of its residents,” said United States Attorney Andrew E. Lelling. “The defendant’s actions, time and again, prove his disregard for the law and for human life.”

“Convicted felons who possess firearms are an inherent danger to our community and in this case, the defendant was an armed career criminal who continued to possess a firearm despite his prior violent felony conviction history. Byone has spent his life as a career criminal and that prior history has finally caught up with him. This sentence rightly removes him from our streets for 17 and half years and will improve public safety for the citizens of Boston,” said Kelly D. Brady, Special Agent in Charge of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, Boston Field Division.

On Jan. 19, 2019, police officers executed a search warrant and seized a firearm, 68 rounds of ammunition, $6,000 in cash, heroin and cocaine from an apartment in Roxbury tied to Bynoe. Additional amounts of heroin, cocaine and cash were also seized from Bynoe himself.

According to court documents, Bynoe was convicted in 2009 in federal court of distribution of cocaine base within 1000 feet of a school and was sentenced to six years in prison and six years of supervised release. While on supervised release, he was arrested on the gun and drugs charges he was sentenced for today.

Bynoe’s criminal record also includes a 2007 conviction for assault with a firearm; a 2001 conviction for distribution of cocaine in a school zone, for which he served five years in prison; and a 1991 juvenile delinquency adjudication for murder, in which Bynoe shot and killed two boys – aged 15 and 11 – in Roxbury.

U.S. Attorney Lelling, ATF SAC Brady and Boston Police Commissioner William Gross made the announcement today. Assistant U.S. Attorney Christopher Pohl of Lelling’s Narcotics and Money Laundering Unit prosecuted the case.