A Silver Springs man who was driving with an expired license tag was arrested Wednesday after a Marion County sheriff’s deputy saw him toss a handgun out of moving vehicle.
Gary Wayne McMinn, 37, who works at McMinn Mobile Automotive AC Repair in Silver Springs, was driving his red Nissan Frontier on SE 172nd Avenue when a deputy noticed that his license tag had expired in July and the passenger-side mirror was missing. While the deputy was following the vehicle, he saw McMinn toss a black item from the driver’s side window, a sheriff’s office report says.
When McMinn was pulled over a short time later, he handed the deputy a Florida identification card and said his license had been suspended for “financial obligations.” When asked about the item McMinn threw from the driver’s side window, he first said it was a beer bottle and then claimed it was a black bag with prescription medication in it.
A short time later, a sheriff’s K-9 found the item, a silver revolver in a black holster. After being read his rights, McMinn said the gun belonged to his father-in-law and he threw it out of the car because he is a convicted felon and knew he would go to jail if he was caught with it.
A check of McMinn’s license showed that it had been suspended three times: June 2, 2018 (expired driver’s license); June 22, 2016 (failure to pay a financial obligation) and June 15, 2017 (failure to pay a traffic fine). The deputy also discovered that McMinn has multiple felony convictions, with the last three being for unlawful possession of controlled substance, possession of a controlled substance without a prescription and cruelty toward a child without great bodily harm.
McMinn was transported to the Marion County Jail and charged with possession of a weapon or ammunition by a convicted felon and driving with a suspended license. He was released Thursday night on $10,500 bond.
Marion County Jail records show that McMinn has spent time in the facility nine times since July 1999.