Nicholas Conn
SANTA BARBARA COUNTY — We may all have our Second Amendment rights to keep and bear arms, but that doesn’t necessarily give us the privilege of modifying weapons or maintaining them in a loaded-and-ready status in the presence of children; nor do we have Constitutional protections from having those guns seized when we’re actively conducting an illegal business like selling illicit drugs…or when we’re on active supervised probation, the terms of which specifically proscribe the possession of firearms or ammunition.
Police display weapons they confiscated
Apparently, 33-year-old Santa Maria resident Nicholas Conn never took that class in law school or read the terms of his probation, because when Santa Barbara County Sheriff Special Investigation Bureau detectives and Compliance Response Team deputies showed up at his house as dawn broke on August 22nd, the cops found all kinds of interesting things in the home.
According to SBSD Public Information Officer Kelly Hoover, once inside the house, deputies found “about 6 grams of black tar heroin, psilocybin mushrooms, a loaded illegally-modified semi-automatic shotgun, two additional firearms” and assorted evidence leading detectives to the reasonable conclusion that Conn was actively engaged in selling controlled substances from the premises.
It was also determined that Conn possessed the contraband drugs and weapons while two small children lived in the home, leading deputies to contact Child Welfare Services to provide for the kids’ safety.
Conn was arrested at the scene and transported to Santa Barbara County Jail, where he was booked for possession of a firearm while selling narcotics, possession of a “sawed off” shotgun, possession for sales of controlled substance, and possession for sale of heroin.
Photo: Courtesy Santa Barbara County Jail Booking, Santa Barbara County SheriffConn
