Department of Justice

MADISON, WIS. – Timothy M. O’Shea, Acting United States Attorney for the Western District of Wisconsin, announced that Dewayne Veasy, 32, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, was sentenced today by Chief U.S. District Judge James D. Peterson to 84 months in federal prison for possessing a firearm as a felon and for possessing cocaine with intent to distribute it.  This prison term will be followed by 4 years of supervised release. Veasy pled guilty to these charges on June 28, 2021.

The charges in this case stem from Veasy’s arrest near Rhinelander, Wisconsin on July 2, 2020. Officers with the Oneida County Sheriff’s Office stopped the van in which Veasy was a passenger after a 911 caller reported Veasy had robbed her during an earlier methamphetamine sale. At the time of the stop, Veasy was in possession of methamphetamine, marijuana, cocaine, heroin laced with fentanyl, as well as a 9mm handgun. Veasy later admitted to traveling around northern Wisconsin to sell controlled substances and admitted to selling methamphetamine to the 911 caller.

At the time of these offenses, Veasy was federally prohibited from possessing a firearm because of prior state felony convictions for armed robbery and cocaine distribution.

At sentencing, Chief Judge Peterson explained a substantial sentence was warranted because Veasy had escalated his criminal conduct both in substance and scope when compared to his prior state convictions for drug dealing. Chief Judge Peterson reasoned that Veasy’s possession of a firearm while completing drug deals created a real threat of danger to the community, even if the 911 caller’s report of robbery was unreliable.

The investigation in this case was conducted by the Oneida County Sheriff’s Office and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.  Assistant U.S. Attorney Taylor L. Kraus handled the prosecution.