Actor fights N.J. gun charge filed over prop used during filming

[sarisataka]

Source: northjersey.com

NEW BRUNSWICK, N.J. (AP) — An actor who played a bit part in an independent gangster film is facing 10 years in state prison because he used a prop pellet gun without a state gun permit.

Carlo Goias, whose stage name is Carlo Bellario, was charged under New Jersey's strict gun law. It requires permits for firearms, including the airsoft gun Goias used while filming a car chase scene.

Goias rejected a plea deal offer Tuesday that could have sent him to jail for less than a year. He faces up to a decade behind bars because of prior felony convictions that prosecutors say include theft and burglary.

"I was shooting a movie — I wasn't committing a crime intentionally," Goias recently told The Associated Press. "Robert De Niro doesn't ask Marty Scorsese is if he has gun permits. We're actors. That's for the production company to worry about."

Read more: www.northjersey.com/news/actor-fights-n-j-gun-charge-filed-over-prop-used-during-filming-1.1531863

[SoapBox]

1. And someone just walks free and arrogant...

BridgeGate.

[Tab]

2. There's a little more too it

His past convictions aside, they did this on a low-budget ($50,000) production filming a car chase in an active residential neighborhood causing several residents to call 911 on them. Maybe if they had the proper permits to film there, there might not have been such obvious outcomes.

- Cars are found shooting at each other in a residential neighborhood
- Police arrive, surround them
- Find some of them have guns that require permits
- One of them has past theft/burglary convictions
- They try to explain they're just "filming a movie" but no on ever filed permits

I don't blame the cops for arresting them. The production company should have notified the police in advance and/or obtained the necessary permits for filming.

[groundloop]

3. Thanks for clarification.... arrests were inevitable given the circumstances

[Democat]

4. Sounds like they should be charged with something, but "less than a year in jail"?

That's the minimum they offered him in the plea bargain according to the article.

[MrModerate]

8. Arresting, yes. Prosecuting? I don't think so. At least not the actors. n/t

[sdfernando]

10. and it is the production company that is responsible for notifications and permits.

low budget or not it is still their duty. The actors should not be punished (priors or not) for the production company dropping the ball.

[Deuce]

5. Terrible planning.

[truthisfreedom]

6. Don't pellet guns have obvious orange barrel ends?

Making them rather stupid looking?

[tclambert]

7. It's about time someone criminalized the making of bad movies.

Though the sentence should be to watch Battlefield Earth over and over, with their eyes held open Clockwork Orange style. Maybe throw in Leonard Part 6.

[GreatGazoo]

9. NJ could have been home to most of the money Hollywood made over the last 100 years

but they have been consistently hostile to the film business, starting with allowing Thomas Edison's thugs to chase out what soon became the 5th largest industry in the US.

10 years for an airsoft pistol on a film shoot ?

[razorman]

11. I'm sure movie productions will rush to film in NJ now.