By Shayna Jacobs
DNAinfo Reporter/Producer
MANHATTAN SUPREME COURT — A jury has acquitted a Florida man of carrying a legally-registered gun in the glove compartment of his pickup truck during a road trip to New York City last year, after he argued he forgot it was in there.
Jonathan Ryan, 29, and his family burst into tears and thanked God as the verdict was read Thursday. He would have gone to prison for at least three and a half years if he had been convicted.
"Everybody back home they said, 'Well what do you mean they're trying to put you in prison?'" Ryan told reporters after the verdict.
"We had a hard time even comprehending the law to begin with," he added.
Ryan was at the end of a 24-hour road trip to help his girlfriend move when he was pulled over by police on Feb. 21, 2010 for making an illegal right turn on the Upper East Side. He had forgotten he left his registered 9 mm revolver in his glove compartment, which he said is commonplace where he's from.
He insisted that would have told the officers that he had a gun in the car if he'd remembered it was there, but added he hadn't touched the gun since he put it in a holster and tucked it away in his glove box in October 2007.
"I'm not the type of guy to lie and hide things," Ryan said.
Ryan had been in New York to pick up his girlfriend, Ashley Shewey, who was working as a temporary page at the Late Show with David Letterman and living in Sunnyside, Queens.
Ryan added that the acquittal is an extra round of good news for him and his girlfriend — saying he had been waiting to ask her to marry him for the past year for fear he might end up in prison, he said.
"I'll tell you guys this now — I have a ring!" the elated man told reporters.
Ryan insisted he never intended to cause trouble in New York. He wasn't even supposed to go through Manhattan on his way to Sunnyside but his portable GPS sent him in the wrong direction.
He had made a right turn on red at Park Avenue and 65th Street, and was pulled over into a no standing zone in Manhattan while he tried to figure out the route to Shewey's apartment when he was approached by police, he said during his trial.
When he reached into his glove compartment to retrieve his registration documents, police spotted the revolver he said he forgot was packed away in the glove box of his 2005 Chevy Silverado.
He said his GPS had led him in the wrong direction and that he'd been hoping to avoid Manhattan entirely during the trip.
"This case was over-prosecuted from day one," said Ryan's attorney Mark Peterow.
Manhattan DA Cy Vance stood behind the charges said possession of a loaded firearm is illegal for "residents and visitors alike."
"Guns brought illegally into New York City – for any reason – violate well-established state law and are a threat to our public safety," Vance said in a statement.
