La Crosse Man Sentenced to 5 Years for Illegal Gun Possession
MADISON, WIS. – Timothy M. O’Shea, United States Attorney for the Western District of Wisconsin, announced that Marcelle Davis, 22, La Crosse, Wisconsin was sentenced today by U.S. District Judge William M. Conley to five years in prison for being a felon in possession of firearms. The prison term will be followed by three years of supervised release. Davis pleaded guilty to this charge on October 7, 2022.
On March 8, 2022, La Crosse police officers responded to a call reporting a domestic dispute. Upon arriving to the area of the call, officers saw the victim holding a Ruger-57 firearm. She immediately dropped the gun and complied with officers’ commands. The victim was frantic, said that Davis was going to kill her, and had numerous injuries on her body. Officers recovered the handgun that the victim dropped, along with a .22 caliber handgun and a .357 revolver in the apartment that she said belonged to Davis. The victim reported that Davis hit her over the head with a handgun, pointed it at her face several times, and strangled her to unconsciousness. She then waited for a chance to escape and when that chance came, she got up, grabbed one of the handguns, and fled the apartment.
Officers eventually located Davis driving and after a short pursuit, he was arrested. They recovered a 9mm handgun that the defendant threw out of the car window.
The defendant’s DNA was found on the guns recovered from the victim and the apartment. Approximately two weeks before this offense, Davis was convicted of the felony crime of false imprisonment and placed on probation.
In choosing a five-year sentence, Judge Conley pointed to the brutal assault of the victim, which included Davis putting the muzzle of a gun on her face and threatening to kill her, calling the defendant’s behavior frightening. Judge Conley said that that the defendant’s history of explosive violence against women, and Davis’s statement describing this offense as a mistake versus a conscious choice, called for a significant sentence.
The charge against Davis was the result of an investigation conducted by the La Crosse Police Department and Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. Assistant U.S. Attorney Corey Stephan handled the prosecution.
This case has been brought as part of Project Safe Neighborhoods (PSN), the U.S. Justice Department’s program to reduce violent crime. The PSN approach emphasizes coordination between state and federal prosecutors and all levels of law enforcement to address gun crime, especially felons illegally possessing firearms and ammunition and violent and drug crimes that involve the use of firearms.
