A New Jersey felon was found with a gun in his lap during a local traffic stop.
Frank LePore, 47, of Summerfield, was driving a black Hyundai Accent at about 11 p.m. Sunday on U.S. Hwy. 441 near the busy shopping area which include’s Lowe’s when a Sumter County sheriff’s deputy noticed the vehicle did not have functioning taglights.
A deputy approached the vehicle and found that LePore had a “black in color firearm sitting open-carried on his lap,” according to an arrest report. LePore told the deputy his brother had given him the gun and he “never shot it before.” The firearm was identified asa Smith & Wesson M&P .380 with a magazine which held six rounds.
The deputy ran a check and found that LePore had been convicted of drug charges in 1996 in Wayne Township, New Jersey.
The Montclair, N.J. native was arrested on a charge of possession of a firearm by a convicted felon. He was issued a warning for the non-functioning taglights. He was booked at the Sumter County Detention Center where he was initially held without bond.
