Department of Justice

CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa — A prohibited person who possessed a firearm was sentenced on Jan. 18 to 110 months in federal prison.

Ethan Porter, 33, of Cedar Rapids, received the sentence after a July 11, 2023, guilty plea to one count of being a prohibited person in possession of a firearm. At the plea hearing, Porter admitted that in June 2022 he possessed a Taurus pistol while being an unlawful drug user and after having been convicted of three felonies and a misdemeanor crime of domestic violence.

Porter was sentenced in Cedar Rapids by U.S. District Court Judge C.J. Williams. Porter was sentenced to 110 months’ imprisonment. He must also serve a three-year term of supervised release after the prison term. There is no parole in the federal system.

This case was brought as part of Project Safe Neighborhoods (PSN). PSN is the centerpiece of the Department of Justice’s violent crime reduction efforts. PSN is an evidence-based program proven to be effective at reducing violent crime. Through PSN, a broad spectrum of stakeholders works together to identify the most pressing violent crime problems in the community and develops comprehensive solutions to address them. As part of this strategy, PSN focuses enforcement efforts on the most violent offenders and partners with locally based prevention and reentry programs for lasting reductions in crime.

This case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Mark Tremmel and was investigated by the High Risk Unit of the Sixth Judicial District Department of Correctional Services, the Cedar Rapids Police Department, the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

Court file information is available; the case file number is CR 23-6.

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