Dorchester man faces federal charge after alleged domestic-violence incident that involved a gun

A Dorchester man who allegedly reached for a gun under his bed and threatened to kill both his girlfriend and her uncle now faces trial in federal court, because convicted felons like him are not supposed to have guns.

At issue is an incident on June 2 on Bloomfield Street in Dorchester, during which Jermaine Fenton, 40, allegedly wasn't satisfied with hitting his girlfriend in the face and reached under his bed in their third-floor apartment for a gun he had hidden there, according to an affidavit by the ATF agent who investigated the case.

Fortunately for the girlfriend, her uncle, who lived on the first floor, had heard her screaming and went upstairs and separated the two - after which Fenton alleged told him "You just signed your death warrant." According to the agent's affidavit, Fenton then moved toward his bed, to reach for the Glock model 36, .45-caliber pistol with two rounds of ammunition in it that he'd left there, but his girlfriend yelled to her uncle he was reaching for a gun and the uncle grabbed Fenton while the girlfriend retrieved the gun.

After telling the two, "you just signed your death warrant," Fenton fled towards Geneva Avenue - but returned about an hour later and hid in the grass in the backyard, where police found and arrested him, the ATF agent wrote.

Fenton was arrested and transported to a police station. During "booking," Fenton gestured with his hand as if he was holding a firearm and stated "pop, pop."

A federal grand jury last week indicted Fenton on a charge of possession of a firearm and ammunition by a felon for the incident, because of a 2010 gun conviction - also for being a felon in possession of a firearm.

In 2010, he was sentenced to nearly five years in federal prison after pleading guilty to both the gun charge and a count of being in the US illegally - he is a Jamaican national.

In a sentencing memorandum at the time, his attorney asked for leniency because he carried the gun only for his own protection and spoke willingly to police, who had stopped the car he was in because it matched the description of a car spotted fleeing gunfire in Dorchester on July 5, 2009. The attorney added that Fenton was the product of a broken home - he was raised by his uncle, who repeatedly beat him and twice punched him so hard he knocked out teeth.

Innocent, etc.