A coalition of local gun advocates is pushing the state’s highest court to order the release of a decorated Air Force veteran from jail while he awaits trial on gun possession charges, arguing that two judges incorrectly found the man dangerous and made him a “political prisoner.”
The arrest and pre-trial detention of Kyle Culotta, a 51-year-old who traveled to Massachusetts this summer with his fiancée, Sarandë Jackson, is the latest flashpoint in a fight to strike down a landmark firearms law Beacon Hill Democrats approved in July 2024 and Gov. Maura Healey declared an emergency measure months later.
Jim Wallace, the executive director of the Gun Owners’ Action League, a local affiliate of the National Rifle Association, said Second Amendment advocates who oppose the more than year-old gun law are “planting our flag” with Culotta’s case.
“We still don’t know why he’s being held,” Wallace said of Culotta outside the State House Thursday. “He’s a political prisoner. I would hate to use that term, but what other term are we supposed to use? This is our fight. This right here, nationwide, is the fight of the Second Amendment.”
Culotta was arrested June 24 in Gardner, a day after he entered the state, after police found three handguns, five rifles, and a “fully stocked military-style ammo” case in a vehicle he was driving during a traffic stop, authorities said. Culotta also had a pistol in his pocket while talking to police, according to court documents.
The former Air Force postal specialist did not have a Massachusetts license to carry the firearms, but informed police officers that he had weapons in the car and the pistol in his pocket when he was pulled over driving Jackson’s vehicle, court documents said.
Two judges later found Culotta posed a threat to the local community and ordered him held without bail while his case plays out in court, decisions Jackson said are “literally political because of this law they passed.”
“He is a gentle soul. He is the most well-read, most intelligent person I’ve ever met in my entire life. We’ve been talking for over 20 years, and we’ve never stopped, and we never intend to. And it breaks my heart to see him treated like this, because he doesn’t deserve it,” Jackson said after an event organized by The Civil Rights Coalition, a group that successfully gathered signatures to place a question on the 2026 ballot asking residents to overturn the 2024 gun law.
Culotta does not have a criminal record, according to his attorney, except for three pot-related offenses dating back to 2006 and 2007.
A spokesperson for Worcester County District Attorney Joseph Early, whose office is prosecuting the case, declined to comment.
Massachusetts requires gun owners to have a firearms identification card, and people from out of state typically need to get a nonresident temporary license unless they meet a handful of exemptions. The Bay State also does not recognize gun licenses from other states.
Daniel Hagan, an attorney representing Culotta who is being paid for by Massachusetts gun rights groups, has appealed Culotta’s detention to the Supreme Judicial Court.
The appeal to the state’s highest court comes after a district court judge in Gardner ordered Culotta be held without bail because he had a large capacity firearm and other unlicensed guns, according to court records.
Culotta unsuccessfully appealed the decision in Worcester County Superior Court.
A Superior Court judge ruled that Culotta should be held behind bars because he had “multiple guns + rifles incl loaded + also incl lg cap,” a reference to the multiple firearms found in the vehicle and a large capacity magazine in the pistol, according to court documents.
But Hagan argued that the Superior Court judge did not offer enough evidence, and merely filled out a standard detention form with little explanation.
Hagan also said all the firearms in the vehicle were unloaded except the handgun in Culotta’s pocket.
“This was not a man entering the state with the intention to harm others with his firearms, this was a man immigrating to Massachusetts with what remained of his property,” Hagan said. “There has been absolutely no showing that, by clear and convincing evidence, Mr. Culotta was both dangerous and unable to safely be returned to society.”
The Superior Court judge also said Culotta’s “ties to (Arizona)” were enough to keep him behind bars.
Hagan said Culotta has “significant family ties” to Massachusetts, including that he was raising a child with Jackson, had begun working in the state, and planned to live with Jackson and her mother in North Oxford.
“Had Mr. Culotta driven across the country with nothing but his firearms, keeping them all fully loaded, while leaving all of his other property behind, it may have been more reasonable to presume that he posed a danger to society,” Hagan said. “Here, though, Mr. Culotta left Arizona with all of his lawfully-owned property with the intention of making Massachusetts his home.”
© 2025 MediaNews Group, Inc.
Visit at bostonherald.com.
Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
