Department of Justice

United States Attorney Richard W. Moore of the Southern District of Alabama announces that United States District Court Senior Judge Terry F. Moorer sentenced John Willis Jones on April 18, 2019 to the 57 months in prison for his possession of a firearm as a prior convicted felon.

 

According to court documents, on October 3, 2018, Prichard Police Department narcotic investigators observed John Willis Jones running down the street with a gun in his hand.  When investigators made contact with Jones, he was compliant and immediately stated he had a firearm in the waistband of his pants.  Jones told investigators he just shot at his nephew over a family dispute where one of his nephews pointed a firearm at another one of Jones’ nephews.  Once taken into custody, Jones showed officers where the shooting took place.  Investigators recovered three shell casings from the crime scene that matched the caliber of the firearm that was recovered from the defendant.  After waiving his Miranda rights during a post arrest interview, Jones admitted that he knew he was not supposed to possess a gun as a convicted felon, but that his family was worth going back to prison. 

 

The defendant had previously been convicted of Possession of Marijuana in June of 2018 and Possession of a Short Barreled Shotgun from July 1995, and his rights to possess a firearm had not been restored at the time of the October 3, 2018 incident.

 

The Mobile County Street Enforcement Narcotics Team, Prichard Police Department, Mobile Police Department and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, Mobile Field office investigated this case.  Assistant United States Attorney Christopher Baugh prosecuted the case for the United States Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Alabama.