Criminal Defense Lawyer Blog
The United States Attorney’s Office recently announced a 44-year-old man from Silver Spring was sentenced to nearly 5 years in prison for possession of a firearm by a convicted felon. He was also charged with possession of ammunition by a convicted felon due to the firearm being loaded when it was seized by police. According to facts that were recited during the plea agreement, an off-duty police officer with the Riverdale Park Police Department was working as a restaurant security guard when he was informed about a suspicious individual possibly possessing a firearm. A restaurant employee apparently told the off-duty cop that a patron entered the establishment with a fanny pack that potentially contained a gun. The tip was corroborated when two other individuals reported that they had been threatened with a firearm while at the restaurant. Officers responded to the scene and found the suspect by the door to the restaurant’s kitchen. Upon seeing the officers, the suspect fled and discarded the fanny pack as he was running. Police apprehended the suspect and located the fanny pack, which contained a Glock .45 caliber handgun loaded with 8 rounds of ammunition. Police later determined that the suspect was prohibited from possessing a firearm due to a prior felony conviction.
While the criminal acts in this case occurred in Prince George’s County, the man was prosecuted in the United States District Court for the District of Maryland rather than in Upper Marlboro at the PG County Circuit Court. All federal criminal cases from the southern portions of Maryland including PG County, Charles County, St. Mary’s County and the Eastern Shore are prosecuted in the Greenbelt Courthouse, which is where this defendant was recently sentenced. The official sentence included 58 months in federal prison followed by 3 years of supervised release. Supervised release is basically the federal term for probation. This case could have been prosecuted under state law, but federal prosecutors are constantly looking for firearm cases involving convicted felons to beef up their conviction records. Just last week another Maryland man from St. Mary’s County was indicted on similar charges after the St. Mary’s County Sheriff’s Office conducted a search warrant of his Lexington Park home and found an AK-47 rifle.
There is no specific formula for when the feds will pick up a gun cases from state court, but they will almost always involve convicted felons in possession. Firearm possession by a disqualified individual such as a convicted felon is illegal under federal law and state law, which means either the feds or the local state’s attorney’s office can charge a person in Maryland. Gun crimes do not need to be committed on federal property for the feds to have jurisdiction, and they do not have to be investigated or charged by federal agents to be prosecuted by the U.S. Attorney’s Office. The U.S. Attorney’s Office can step in at any point and charge a person, which usually results in the state case being set for a nolle pros. in circuit court. While the Maryland state charge for possession of a firearm by a convicted felon carries the same 15-year maximum penalty as the federal charge, federal prosecutions carry a stigma for being tougher in defendants. In reality the 5-year mandatory sentence for a felon in possession of a firearm in state court may result in a harsher sentence than a case with similar facts in federal court. If a person has numerous prior convictions, his or her federal guidelines will likely be higher than the state guidelines, but the state has the minimum mandatory. Overall, it can be a tossup which jurisdiction is better for a particular defendant. Either way, all defendants are urged to contact an experienced Maryland gun crime lawyer. The Blog will continue to follow these federal prosecutions and may post a follow up article as gun possession cases continue to end up in the Baltimore and Greenbelt courthouses. If you been charged with felon in possession of a firearm or any other gun crime in state or federal court, contact Benjamin Herbst anytime at 410-207-2598.
Resources:
Maryland man sentenced to 58 months for felony firearm possession, foxbaltimore.com