Jury Finds Convicted Felon Guilty of Possessing Ammunition
Tampa, Florida – A federal jury has found Victor Ricardo Grant (39, Brandon) guilty of possession of ammunition by a convicted felon. Grant faces a minimum mandatory sentence of 15 years, and up to, life in federal prison. His sentencing hearing is scheduled for March 4, 2022.
Grant was initially indicted on February 4, 2020, and a superseding indictment was filed on September 28, 2021.
According to testimony presented at trial, federal agents, along with Florida local law enforcement agencies, investigated a series of credit union robberies and carjackings committed in Hillsborough County and Pinellas County in 2019. As part of the investigation, the FBI obtained a search warrant for Grant’s residence in Brandon, Florida. The Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office and federal investigators searched Grant’s home on January 22, 2020, and found approximately 400 rounds of 7.62 caliber ammunition inside backpacks in Grant’s bedroom closet and in the attic. All of the ammunition in the backpack in the attic was loaded in magazine clips for an AK-47 assault rifle; that backpack also contained ammunition drum magazines for that type of rifle. Because of his several prior felony offense convictions, federal law prohibits Grant from possessing ammunition.
This case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office, the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, the Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office, the Pinellas Park Police Department, the St. Petersburg Police Department, and the Clearwater Police Department. It is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorneys Michael Sinacore and Diego Novaes.
This case is being prosecuted as part of the joint federal, state, and local Project Safe Neighborhoods (PSN) Program, 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 work together to identify the most pressing violent crime problems in the community and develop 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.
