CLEVELAND, Ohio – A felony record never stopped Matthew Sowden from carrying a gun.
By the time he was indicted last year in the fatal shooting of Jacob Bednarski, it marked the fifth time he faced a charge of possessing a gun as a convicted felon. He was later sentenced to 10 years in prison for the slaying.
Sowden is part of a larger pattern, where convicted felons – prohibited from owning guns – were both able to obtain a firearm and use it to kill someone in Cleveland last year…