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Cannon, who had served seven years in prison starting in 1997 for convictions related to activities as a member of Coatesville's Young Guns drug gang, was found guilty of one count of being a felon in possession of a firearm and one count of being a felon in possession of body armor.
The 29-year-old was arrested following an incident on the 700 block of Diamond Alley in Coatesville on May 22, during which he and another man, Omega Peoples, both were shot.
A grand jury indicted Cannon later that month, charging that he had been carrying the gun and wearing the body armor for seven weeks prior to being shot.
During his trial, which spanned parts of three days at the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District Court of Pennsylvania, Cannon's attorney, Stephen P. Patrizio, argued his client was justified to have those things.
"These two exhibits," Patrizio said in his closing statement, holding Cannon's revolver and blood-stained vest for jurors to see, "saved this man's life. But for these two exhibits, this man would have died."
Patrizio told the jury Cannon admitted having the vest and the armor during the first day of the trial. For the remainder of the case, Patrizio attempted to prove the defendant was legally justified to possess them.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Joseph McGettigan called the tactic a "defense of last resort and of desperation."
"Everyone has enemies" McGettigan said, noting the standard for a justification defense is stricter than that. Among what Cannon had to prove, he said, was that he did nothing to provoke the problems with any rivals.
Because of restrictions on what was admissible concerning Cannon's criminal history and because Cannon opted not to testify on his own behalf the jury learned little about the circumstances surrounding the May 22 shooting.
They did hear Cannon and Peoples and possibly a third man, Teron Lewis, who witnesses placed at the crime scene were members of rival "factions."
Lewis has not been charged in connection with the shooting, and Peoples has a federal case pending on weapons offenses.
The jury also did not know Cannon is charged with first-degree murder in Chester County for allegedly orchestrating the murder of Brian Keith Brown in Coatesville on April 1.
And while there was testimony Cannon's brother, Jonas "Sonny" Suber. had been shot the same night as Brown, nothing was presented about Suber's slaying inside his home on the 400 block of Walnut Street on Oct. 21.
(Cannon's other brother, Ironne "Ra Ra" Cannon, died in 2001 from complications caused by gunshot wounds he sustained in a 1996 shooting done, in part, by another member of the Young Guns.)
One issue remains unsettled in Cannon's federal case.
Prior to the start of Tuesday's testimony, Patrizio and McGettigan debated whether the prosecution had turned over all the evidence in the case to the defense, as is required by law.
Patrizio said he had received only excerpts of statements at least one witness had given to the Coatesville police. McGettigan told U.S. District Judge Timothy J. Savage he had provided the defense attorney with portions of the evidence relative to Cannon's federal trial.
The complete reports were included with other evidence collected in the investigation of Brown's alleged murder, McGettigan said.
After some testy debate, the judge ordered Coatesville Detective Martin Quinn to retrieve all of the evidence from the police station in Coatesville and submit it to him, under seal, for his review.
"If it turns out there is (evidence that should have been given to the defense), he's going to have a new trial," Savage said, referring to Cannon.
Quinn delivered a filing box related to the case by mid-afternoon.
To contact staff writer R. Jonathan Tuleya, send an e-mail to jtuleya@dailylocal.com.
