Illegal Possession of Firearm Sends Hamilton Man to Prison for More Than Two Years
MISSOULA — A Hamilton man was sentenced today to 27 months in prison followed by three years of supervised release after he admitted to illegally possessing a firearm after being found passed out in the driver’s seat of a running vehicle that was stopped at an intersection in Missoula, U.S. Attorney Leif M. Johnson said.
Andrew David Golie, 35, pleaded guilty in December 2021 to prohibited person in possession of a firearm and ammunition.
U.S. District Judge Dana L. Christensen presided.
The government alleged in court documents that in October 2020, Golie was on state probation for a 2012 felony conviction of tampering with witnesses and informants. On Oct. 1, 2020, at approximately 4 a.m., Missoula police officers found Golie passed out in the driver’s seat of a running car that was stopped at an intersection in Missoula. The officers smelled marijuana and saw an unholstered firearm on the passenger seat next to Golie. The firearm, a .45-caliber semi-automatic pistol, had a round loaded in the chamber and additional rounds of ammunition in the magazine. Officers also located two backpacks in the front passenger seat that contained methamphetamine and syringes.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Cyndee L. Peterson prosecuted the case, which was investigated by the FBI, FBI’s Montana Regional Violent Crime Task Force, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and the Missoula Police Department.
This case is part of Project Safe Neighborhoods, a U.S. Department of Justice initiative to reduce violent crime. Through PSN, federal, tribal, state and local law enforcement partners in Montana focus on violent crime driven by methamphetamine trafficking, armed robbers, firearms offenses and violent offenders with outstanding warrants.
