Felon gets 11 years for gun possession, offering to pay witnesses to lie

CHICAGO - A convicted felon was sentenced Tuesday to 11 years in federal prison for possessing a handgun with an extended magazine and trying to pay witnesses to lie to investigators.

Ramone Shaffers was arrested in 2016 in Woodlawn after police caught him with a gun in parked car near 62nd Street and Cottage Grove Avenue, prosecutors have said.

While in jail, Shaffers called someone he hoped would pay off the witnesses who were in the vehicle in exchange for their false testimony, prosecutors said.

In the call, Shaffer explained that "everybody could say he didn’t have anything. He was there, but he ain’t have nothing," prosecutors said.

Shaffers, 38, told the person in the call that the charges against him would be thrown out if the witnesses made those statements, prosecutors said.

Cook County court records show Shaffers pleaded guilty in 2012 to aggravated discharge of a firearm.

Shaffers was convicted in 2019 of one count of illegal possession of a firearm by a felon and one count of obstruction of justice. He faced up to 20 years in prison.