KANNAPOLIS — Deputies charged a 21-year-old convicted sex offender with selling a stolen firearm in February.
According to a Rowan County Sheriff’s Office report, Steven Bradley Taylor, of Bertha Street, told deputies he sold the .25 caliber handgun “as a favor for his cousin.”
Detective Carl Dangerfield tracked the firearm to Pearl’s Pawn Shop in China Grove on Feb. 17 while investigating a break-in at a home on Enochville Circle.
Dangerfield said the receipt for the gun was filled out in Taylor’s name.
According to the initial break-in incident report, the firearm, jewelry, a digital camera and $600 in rolled change were taken from the home on Feb. 15.
Using the sex offender registry, Dangerfield met Taylor at his Bertha Street home on Feb. 25.
Dangerfield continued to work for the next two months on follow-ups as a part of the investigation, the report said.
On April 30, he charged Taylor with felony obtaining property by false pretense and felony possession of a firearm by a felon.
He was also later charged with probation violation.
Taylor was convicted of two counts of felony indecent liberties with children in October 2010.
He was sentenced to 24 months of probation.
Taylor was in jail Wednesday under a $11,500 bond.