Courts.
A Philadelphia man is headed to Montgomery County Correctional Facility for 11½ to 23 months for a felony count of illegally possessing a “ghost gun.”
Montgomery County Common Pleas Judge Wendy Rothstein sentenced James Joseph Ditsche, 36, to 11½ to 23 months in Montgomery County jail after he pleaded guilty to felony possession of prohibited firearms in May.
Ditsche received 297 days time served against his sentence, per court documents. He must also serve 23 months of probation, per Rothstein’s order, and forfeit all firearms to the Montgomery County District Attorney’s Office.
Ditsche was represented by public defender Eric Donato. The case was prosecuted by ADA William Highland III.
Ditsche was also facing more than 50 felony charges and 30 misdemeanor charges in Bucks County at the time of his September 2023 arrest, stemming from a different arrest that occurred in Hilltown Township in November 2022. Charges in that case ranged from felony theft and receiving stolen property to more than two dozen counts of theft from a motor vehicle.
On July 29, Ditsche pleaded guilty to one felony count of theft by unlawful taking in Bucks County Common Pleas Court, and the other 80 charges were withdrawn. He was sentenced by Bucks County Common Pleas Judge Charissa J. Liller to four to 23 months, with credit for time served from May 13, to run concurrently with the Montgomery County sentence.
Montgomery Township Police were patrolling at 10:40 p.m. on Sept. 29, 2023 when they observed a black Jeep Liberty heading southbound on North Wales Road, which matched an alert from the department’s stationary license plate reader indicating the owner had an active arrest warrant, police said. The vehicle was stopped by police in the parking lot of the Wawa along the 900 block of North Wales Road, and the female driver was detained on the arrest warrant, according to the criminal complaint.
The passenger – identified as Ditsche – was known to carry a firearm without a license, police said, and a check through criminal records indicated Ditsche also had an arrest warrant out of Burlington County, NJ on weapons charges. Once outside of the vehicle, Ditsche advised he had a firearm on his hip, which police described as a loaded 9mm Glock replica, or ghost gun, the report states.
Ditsche also was found to be in possession of methamphetamine, police said.
Ditsche was previously arrested in Montgomery Township in January 2022 on felony weapons charges, and again in March 2022 on felony theft and receiving stolen property. He was also arrested on a dozen misdemeanor counts of theft, receiving stolen property, and criminal mischief in Franconia Township in February 2022.
A review of court records from those three cases shows Ditsche struck plea deals in each case in early August 2023, with Judge Rothstein sentencing Ditsche to four years’ probation on the felony weapons charge, three years’ probation on the felony theft charge, and three years’ probation on the misdemeanor theft charge.
Sentencing notes in those cases do not indicate if the sentences were consecutive or concurrent.
Ditsche must also repay $57,851 in restitution, at a rate of $1.00 per month, upon release, in the Bucks County case and have no contact with the victim.
