Williston Man Sentenced to Ten Years in Federal Prison For Felon in Possession of Firearms Following a Report of Indecent Exposure in Front of Fargo Residence
FARGO - Acting United States Attorney Nicholas W. Chase announced that U.S. District Court Chief Judge Peter D. Welte sentenced LaSamuel Richardson, III, age 32, Williston, ND, to ten years in federal prison followed by three years of supervised release for the charge of Felon in Possession of Firearms and Ammunition. Richardson was found guilty of the charge following a jury trial in February 2021.
This case came to the attention of law enforcement after a resident of Fargo reported that a male was masturbating in his vehicle outside of her residence during the early morning hours of January 4, 2019. A Fargo Police Department (FPD) officer was dispatched to the residence but did not locate the vehicle. Richardson became a suspect after the complainant’s neighbor spotted the same vehicle in front of the same residence three days later. The FPD ran the vehicle’s license plate through the North Dakota Sex Offender Registry and learned Richardson had identified the vehicle as his primary vehicle when he last registered with the Williston Police Department. After identifying Richardson as a suspect, the FPD learned Richardson was subject to GPS monitoring. Richardson’s GPS records reflected that he had been outside the address of the complainant on January 4, 2019, and January 7, 2019.
The Fargo Police Department later located Richardson in his vehicle in a parking lot near Island Park. A detective requested assistance from uniformed patrol officers to arrest Richardson for indecent exposure. Before officers could arrive on scene, the FPD detective witnessed Richardson get out of his vehicle and get into another vehicle driven by a female acquaintance. Officers later initiated a traffic stop of the woman’s vehicle, after which they recovered twelve rounds of 9MM ammunition in Richardson’s coat pocket. The woman later provided ATF with a loaded 9MM pistol that Richardson hid in her vehicle during the traffic stop.
Thereafter, FPD and North Dakota Parole and Probation conducted a probationary search of Richardson’s vehicle that was parked near Island Park. They found an AR-15 rifle and 35 rounds of .223 ammunition that could be fired from that rifle inside Richardson’s vehicle.
This case was investigated by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, the Fargo Police Department, and North Dakota Parole and Probation. Assistant United States Attorneys Alex Stock and Jennifer Klemetsrud Puhl prosecuted the case.
