BY JEFFERSON SIEGEL | James O’Donnell, 41, dubbed by some in the media the “International Man of Mystery,” was sentenced last Fri., Dec. 14, to 15 years in prison for possession of a loaded gun, a silencer, ammunition and several daggers.
The weapons were discovered when O’Donnell was observed by police while he was trying to open a door in the West Village in March 2010. Police subsequently discovered O’Donnell’s storage locker and found another gun, two more silencers, a laser scope, three more daggers, a stun gun and more than 300 rounds of ammunition.
At O’Donnell said sentencing, Judge Lewis Bart Stone suggested the weaponry he possessed suggested a man on an assassination mission. O’Donnell also had anti-Bloomberg literature in his possession.
“Preventing crime is as important to my office as prosecuting it,” Manhattan District Attorney Cy Vance Jr. said after the sentencing. “With an arsenal of dangerous and deadly weapons, the defendant had the means to do incredible harm. Thankfully, members of the N.Y.P.D. and prosecutors from my office were able to stop the defendant before he was able to harm anyone, and keep him off the streets.”
Vance also thanked Police Officers Edward Thompson and John Sivori of the Ninth Precinct for their assistance in the investigation of this case.
O’Donnell earned the “Man of Mystery” sobriquet when officials were unable to confirm his identity after he refused to cooperate. Eventually officials learned O’Donnell had been deported from Germany in 2006.
