A New York man convicted of building firearms in his own home could still spend decades in prison, even though the county’s own probation department says he shouldn’t spend another day behind bars.
TTAG covered Demetrio Daga’s conviction earlier this month and the Queens-to-Albany “pilot program” email that steered state police to Daga’s online purchase history in the first place. The sentencing is scheduled for October 28, and the Albany County Probation Department has weighed in — and the judge appears poised to ignore its recommendation.
The Recommendation
The Albany County Probation Department has recommended probation for Demetrio Daga, with no time behind bars. That report came last month, after jurors convicted Daga, a 44-year-old husband and father of two, on 15 New York State firearm charges. New York is one of the handful of states that criminalize homemade firearms.
That recommendation may not matter. County Court Judge Andra Ackerman has indicated she may not follow the report from her own probation department and is likely to hand Daga decades in state prison. Ackerman did not answer phone calls or emails asking for comment.
Daga’s defense attorney Kevin O’Brien pointed out that the probation department works for the court itself. “The Albany County Probation Department is an arm of the judiciary,” O’Brien said. “They looked at the charges, interviewed Demetrio, and looked at court documents” — and still concluded a man who harmed no one and sold nothing shouldn’t go to prison.
Daga Speaks
Still held in the county jail, Daga says people across the country have thanked him for defending his rights and refusing a plea deal. The pre-trial offer from Albany County prosecutors was eight years in state prison — of which, as a violent felony offender, he would have been required to serve 85 percent. He turned it down.
“These are not privileges. These are our rights,” Daga said. “I didn’t threaten anyone. I didn’t even say anything negative about law enforcement. I was exercising a constitutional right within the parameters of the law.”
He added that people who’ve harmed no one shouldn’t face decades in prison for constitutionally protected activity.
“Nobody outside that courtroom thinks I should have been charged with anything,” Daga said. “Probation is not going to be an option.”
Case History
Daga was convicted on one first-degree Criminal Possession of a Weapon charge, along with two second-degree counts, three in the Third Degree, and nine counts of Criminal Possession of a Firearm. The seven-day trial featured 17 prosecution witnesses and zero defense witnesses — O’Brien has said publicly that New York’s ghost-gun statute as written left him essentially nothing to work with at trial, and that Daga’s real case is on appeal. The jury deliberated for under two hours before convicting on all counts.
The New York State Police handled the investigation and arrest alone. No federal agency, including the ATF, took part. State troopers worked from a target list the Queens County DA’s office emailed to Albany state police, which the sender described as a bid to “bring our ghost gun model to the Capital Region as a test run.” The defense says the list included former elected officials and the current sheriff’s son. Only Daga was investigated.
Prosecutor Jessica Blain-Lewis told the jury Daga “was building an arsenal” — the inventory was 13 ghost-gun handguns, 22 ghost-gun AR-style rifles, 18 serial-numbered AR-style rifles, and two pump shotguns. Fifty-five firearms total, no accusation of using or selling any of them.
Daga’s mother, Domenica Greco, says her son faces up to 40 years, though O’Brien has projected a more likely maximum of 25 years if the counts run concurrently. The family has established a GiveSendGo page to cover appellate costs.
The Taylor Parallel
Daga isn’t the first New York defendant to face decades in state prison for the same conduct that federal law protects in 47 other states. Brooklyn software engineer Dexter Taylor was sentenced to ten years in state prison in 2024 for building his own firearms at home — no violence, no sales, no criminal history, same statutory framework. The pattern is now settled: New York prosecutors pick a case, charge every count available, decline every reasonable plea, and ask the court for maximum prison time regardless of what the defendant actually did with the firearms he built.
Judge Ackerman’s response to the probation department’s recommendation will tell us whether a professional pre-sentence report means anything in Albany County’s gun cases, or whether the court will just rubber-stamp whatever the DA’s office asks for. The sentencing hearing is October 28.
This is why you have to get on the juries if you are a 2nd Amendment advocate. And do it quietly.
Thanks to Gun Control History illiteracy Gun Control is so adored in mandami’s rotten apple ny. And that admiration is apparent with ny courts, legislatures et al.
But at least they aren’t racist right? Someday you will figure out that those terms are only used to control the weak minded but till then do rail about in your ignorance. It is somewhat entertaining to see one ignore what power and control are all about in real time and how propaganda is actually very effective.