Headingley Correctional Centre inmate Ashlen Parris never had a chance to make or sell illegal 3D-printed handguns before he was arrested, but just talking about it was enough to land him a three-year prison sentence Friday.
Parris, 23, pleaded guilty to one count each of conspiracy to manufacture firearms and conspiracy to traffic firearms after he was caught on recorded jail phone calls plotting the criminal enterprise with a co-accused on the outside.
“Thankfully, due to good and quick police work, Mr. Parris was never actually able to put his plan into action and there has not been one firearm manufactured or trafficked as a result of (his) actions that have ended up on Winnipeg streets,” Crown attorney Vanessa Gama told provincial court Judge Sandy Chapman.
ERIK PINDERA / FREE PRESS FILES
These 3D-printed Glock-style pistol lower receivers, which police allege were assembled into functioning guns, were seized in 2023 as part of an investigation into Blake Ellison-Crate and others. A 23-year-old inmate has been sentenced for conspiring to get involved in the 3D-printed firearm scheme.
The crime of conspiracy requires only proof of an agreement, not detailed preparation, Gama said.
“These are untraceable firearms,” she said. “Communications — even just speaking about the manufacturing and trafficking of firearms — requires lengthy sentences.”
Court heard Parris attracted police attention during an investigation into the activities of Blake Ellison-Crate, who recently received back-to-back sentences totalling 22 years for manufacturing and selling 3D-printed firearms, both inside and out of prison.
Ellison-Crate was serving his first prison sentence in November 2023 when a Winnipeg welding company called city police about a “suspicious customer” who had asked it to manufacture metal parts later confirmed to be firearm rails, which are used exclusively for making 3D-printed handguns.
That “suspicious customer” was Michael Rivers, who police learned had been conspiring with Ellison-Crate to manufacture the illegal firearms and traffic them through Ellison-Crate’s prison contacts.
Police soon learned Rivers was also conspiring with another inmate, Parris, who was then lodged at Headingley Correctional Centre, serving a 21-month sentence for assault and who offered to sell any guns Rivers made.
Recordings of phone calls between Parris and Rivers revealed Ellison-Crate had arranged to pay Rivers $200 for every firearm he made.
In another call, Parris and Rivers discussed Ellison-Crate being been attacked by another inmate in the shower, suspected retribution for not satisfying a gun order fast enough.
Ellison-Crate’s mother, a co-accused, told Rivers to “shut everything down.”
That was when Parris and Rivers decided to cut Ellison-Crate out of the deal and make and sell the firearms on their own.
“Parris told Rivers on multiple occasions that he had purchasers lined up through his connections at Headingley Correctional Centre to illicit firearm purchasers from Toronto, Calgary and locally,” Gama said. “Parris bragged that he had already lined up two deals while incarcerated and would become a prolific firearms dealer for Rivers as soon as he was released from custody.”
In another conversation, Parris laid out his plan for success, telling Rivers what he had learned from reading the book Pimpology: How to be a boss.
“It’s pretty important that we keep everybody in the dark, keep everybody off balance when we branch out and do our own thing,” Parris said.
Police executed a search warrant at Rivers’ Setter Street home last March and seized a 3D printer, a 3D-printed handgun, multiple 3D-printed handgun parts, ammunition and printing supplies.
Parris was arrested at Headingley Correctional Centre in May.
Defence lawyer Adam Hodge described Parris’s involvement in the trafficking scheme as “completely out of character,” noting his prior criminal convictions were all tied to his “lack of impulse control” and addiction issues.
In jail, Parris “was introduced to people who didn’t have his best interests in mind,” Hodge said.
Rivers remains before the court.
dean.pritchard@freepress.mb.ca
Dean Pritchard
Courts reporter
Dean Pritchard is courts reporter for the Free Press. He has covered the justice system since 1999, working for the Brandon Sun and Winnipeg Sun before joining the Free Press in 2019. Read more about Dean.
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