Waunakee Felon Sentenced to 5 Years for Illegal Gun Possession
MADISON, WIS. – Timothy M. O’Shea, Acting United States Attorney for the Western District of Wisconsin, announced that Samuel Schiltz, 20, Waunakee, Wisconsin, was sentenced today by Chief U.S. District Judge James D. Peterson to 5 years in federal prison for being a felon in possession of a firearm. Schiltz pleaded guilty to this charge on January 26, 2021.
Schiltz sold a Glock 9mm handgun to an undercover agent on May 11, 2020. Four days later, Schiltz sold the agent a Glock .40 caliber handgun. Both handguns had 30-round magazines and auto sears had been installed, which illegally converted the handguns to be fully automatic machine guns. One of the handguns had an obliterated serial number, which Schiltz pointed out to the agent. Schiltz said that he sold illicit drugs such as cocaine and prescription opiates, showed the agent a video of him handling an AR-15, offered to sell the agent two other handguns, and offered to help install illegal auto sears on other handguns to convert them to be fully automatic machine guns. Schiltz was on probation for a felony drug offense at the time that he sold the two guns to the undercover agent.
At sentencing, Judge Peterson said that while Schiltz was a young offender, this was a very dangerous firearm offense. Judge Peterson found the sale of these machine pistols to endanger the entire community and said that the sale of an illegal fully automatic weapon on the streets of Madison was “horrifying.” Schiltz was also ordered to complete three years of supervised release after serving the prison term.
The charge against Schiltz was the result of an investigation conducted by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and the Wisconsin Department of Justice Division of Criminal Investigation. The prosecution of the case has been handled by Assistant U.S. Attorney Corey Stephan.
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.
