Felon in Possession of a Firearm Sentenced
Acting United States Attorney Steven Russell announced that Devron Franklin, 33, was sentenced on June 3, 2022, in federal court in Omaha, Nebraska, as a felon in possession of a firearm. Chief United States District Court Judge Robert F. Rossiter, Jr. sentenced Franklin to 51 months’ imprisonment. Franklin was previously sentenced on June 21, 2021, in Douglas County District Court to 50 years in prison following his convictions for robbery, use of a deadly weapon to commit a felony, possession of a deadly weapon by a prohibited person, operating a motor vehicle to avoid arrest, and assault in the first degree. He is scheduled to be released from state prison on July 28, 2063. Following his release from state prison, Franklin will begin serving his 51-month federal sentence. There is no parole in the federal system. After release from federal prison, Franklin will begin a 3-year term of supervised release.
Franklin’s federal conviction stems from an incident that occurred on Sunday, July 2, 2017, at 3:11 a.m. Officers with the Omaha Police Department were dispatched to a vehicle accident near I-480 and Highway 75 North. Officers observed a vehicle, which had flipped over onto the driver’s side, and crashed along the side of the road. The vehicle passenger, Franklin, was not injured. An inventory of the vehicle found a Ruger .45 handgun concealed within the center console. A DNA swab was taken of the firearm as well as Franklin and the vehicle’s driver. The driver was excluded as a contributor to DNA on the firearm. A swab of the firearm magazine and ammunition included Franklin’s DNA to the exclusion of 1 in 11.1 million other persons.
This case was investigated by the Omaha Police Department and Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and was part of Project Safe Neighborhoods (PSN), a program bringing together all levels of law enforcement and the communities they serve to reduce violent crime and make our neighborhoods safer for everyone. The Department of Justice reinvigorated PSN in 2017 as part of the Department’s renewed focus on targeting violent criminals, directing all U.S. Attorney’s Offices to work in partnership with federal, state, local, and tribal law enforcement and the local community to develop effective, locally based strategies to reduce violent crime
