As Darwin Jiles settles into his new post as a vice chair of the Michigan Republican Party, his defenders say that he is a young man who has impressively turned his life around.

But one big question still remains:
How did Jiles legally obtain a firearm and did Oakland County authorities know about his previous felony when he his 2014 gun charge was significantly reduced in a plea bargain?
Jiles was not supposed to have a gun, nor a CCW permit to carry one. He called himself an NRA-sanctioned “safety promoter” on his Facebook page, yet the night of the shooting in Auburn Hills last year he brought a firearm to round two of an altercation with an acquaintance.
The victim, who was shot in the leg and suffered a serious injury, told police that Jiles fired on him. The police noted that Jiles’ story didn’t add up: He said the gun accidentally went off from inside his pocket during a scuffle, but his coat had no bullet holes.
Despite these two strikes against him, the Oakland County Prosecutor’s Office, led by a Democrat, Jessica Cooper, cut the trial short and gave him probation on a lesser misdemeanor charge — discharge of a firearm without malicious intent, but with injury.

Why would they do this when Jiles, 29, was convicted of two felonies as a teen in another shooting incident?

So, let’s review:
* Jiles was charged in Flint in 2001 with two counts of assault with intent to murder, one charge of illegally carrying a concealed weapon, and one charge of using a firearm during the commission of a felony.

* Jiles, 15 at the time, was sentenced as an adult and pled no-contest to a lesser charge of assault with intent to do great bodily harm, plus the felony firearms charge. The criminal convictions were never expunged from his record.

* On February 17, 2014, Jiles was charged in Oakland County with assault with intent to do great bodily harm less than murder for the incident in his Auburn Hills trailer park. Assault with intent to do great bodily harm less than murder carries a maximum possible penalty of 10 years and/or $5,000 fine.

* The charge was a result of Jiles shooting a man in the aftermath of a “heated argument” on Sunday, February 16, 2014, at 2:40 a.m.
* Jiles owned the firearm and had a license to carry it.

* Jiles recently posted numerous photos on his Facebook page showing him firing guns (above)  with the label, “N.R.A.-C.C.W. Lifetime Membership-Gun Advocate & Safety Promoter.” In fact, he was not a lifetime CCW holder, but he was charged with violating the CCW law.

* Michigan law prohibits the granting of a permit to carry a concealed weapon, a CCW, to a felon.

* Federal law prohibits a felon from having a firearm. Did Jiles purchase his weapon on the black market? Did he use the “gun show loophole” to buy a pistol without undergoing a background check?

These facts and questions should have been raised prior to the GOP convention vote on Saturday, where Jiles ousted the incumbent and was chosen as the vice chair for ethnic/minority matters.
Now that he’s a party officer, elected in his own right, I assume he would be as hard to remove from that post as the MIGOP’s resident embarrassment, RNC committee member Dave Agema.

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