Actor fights charge filed over prop pellet gun used in film
An actor who played a bit part in an independent gangster film is facing 10 years in state prison because he used a prop pellet gun without a state gun permit.
Carlo Goias, whose stage name is Carlo Bellario, was charged under New Jersey’s strict gun law. It requires permits for firearms, including the airsoft gun Goias used while filming a car chase scene.
Goias rejected a plea deal offer Tuesday that could have sent him to jail for less than a year. He faces up to a decade behind bars because of prior felony convictions that prosecutors say include theft and burglary.
“I was shooting a movie — I wasn’t committing a crime intentionally,” Goias recently told The Associated Press. “Robert De Niro doesn’t ask Marty Scorsese is if he has gun permits. We’re actors. That’s for the production company to worry about.”
From: Actor fights charge filed over prop pellet gun used in film
But New Jersey gun laws are perfectly reasonable!Report
Well, I can expect an actor, those being of general left-ish bent, not to be aware of NJ’s hardcore anti gun laws, but there have been recent reports over the last several months of folks getting into similar trouble in the state. But Carlo is correct that it’s probably the production company that’s at fault, but that doesn’t do any damn good now does it? Maybe he has a legal case against the production company. He also might be able to get the prosecutor to mod the charge if there’s enough PR. That’s happened before as well.
But still. IT IS NEW JERSEY.Report
Don’t you know that ignorance of the law is no excuse even for a lefty actor?Report
that’s why i said “But still. IT IS NEW JERSEY”
That state is shady. Just like MD, DC, etc. Gotta watch the “gun” regs. Assume nothing.Report
Especially if they are run by Dems like all three of those examples.Report
Goias, who lives in Toms River, New Jersey, said he acts part time to get more exposure for his main job as a standup comedian. The Internet Movie Database credits him with a few roles, including the part of “beach man” in the 2013 movie “Bikini Girls vs. The Surf Wolf.”
The gun charge is nonsense, but he should get 30 days for comparing himself to De Niro.Report
If he’d just followed the extremely simple rules then he wouldn’t have had any trouble at all. The whole thing is his own damn fault for being lazy and inattentive.Report