Northampton man sentenced to 8 years for brandishing pistol with crack, heroin in hotel lobby

SPRINGFIELD — A Northampton man was sentenced on Tuesday, Feb. 24, 2026, in federal court in Springfield to eight years in prison after he was found armed with a loaded handgun and in possession of crack cocaine and heroin in a hotel lobby while on supervised release for a prior firearms conviction.

According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Massachusetts, Gabriel Lebron, 35, was sentenced by U.S. District Court Judge Mark Mastroianni to seven years in prison on the firearm and narcotics charges and an additional year for violating the conditions of his supervised release. The sentences will be served consecutively, followed by three years of supervised release.

Lebron pleaded guilty in September 2025 to one count of felon in possession of a firearm and ammunition and one count of possession with intent to distribute cocaine base and heroin.

According to federal prosecutors, police in Hadley responded to a 911 call on April 9, 2025, reporting a man in the lobby of the Howard Johnson brandishing a firearm. Officers located Lebron in the lobby and found him in possession of a Jimenez Arms Model JA 25, a .25-caliber semi-automatic pistol loaded with five rounds of ammunition, including one in the chamber.

Authorities also recovered 10 “snap caps” of crack cocaine and two bundles of heroin. “Snap caps” or “trash cans” are small plastic vials with snap-on lids that are commonly used to package small quantities of drugs such as crack cocaine.

Lebron was taken into custody at the scene.

According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Massachusetts, at the time of the offense, Lebron was on federal supervised release for a firearms conviction in Vermont for possessing a loaded ghost gun with a laser sight and multiple rounds of ammunition, for which he had been sentenced in 2023 to 27 months in federal prison followed by three years of supervised release.

The case was announced by U.S. Attorney Leah B. Foley and Thomas Greco, special agent in charge of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives’ Boston Field Division. The investigation involved assistance from the Hadley Police Department and the Massachusetts State Police.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Steven Breslow prosecuted the case.