East St. Louis, Ill. – A convicted felon from the Metro East is headed to prison for possessing a
loaded rifle. Fernandez White, 28, of East St. Louis, Illinois, was sentenced on Thursday to the
statutory maximum term of 10 years in prison. White previously pled guilty to the offense in
February.
According to court documents, the case against White began on Oct. 31, 2020, when a woman notified
the East St. Louis Housing Authority that she had been stopped by a man asking for a ride. When the
woman refused, the man reportedly grew angry, brandished a rifle, and walked away.
Officers approached the man, later identified as White, and took him into custody without incident.
The rifle was recovered and determined to be stolen. It was loaded with 26 rounds of ammunition.
At the sentencing hearing, the district court heard evidence that at the time of the offense White
was on probation for robbery and out on bond for three separate felony offenses. In
fact, White was wearing an electronic location monitor on his ankle when he was arrested.
The case was investigated by the Public Safety Enforcement Group (PSEG), the East St. Louis Police
Department, the East St. Louis Housing Authority Police, and the ATF. PSEG is a newly formed
Illinois State Police unit embedded in and working in direct partnership with the East St. Louis
Police Department.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Laura Reppert prosecuted the case.
This case was brought as part of Project Safe Neighborhoods (PSN), the centerpiece of
the Department of Justice’s violent crime reduction efforts. PSN is an evidence-based program
proven to be effective at reducing violent crime. Through PSN, a broad spectrum of stakeholders
work together to identify the most pressing violent crime problems in the community and develop
comprehensive solutions to address them. As part of this strategy, PSN focuses
enforcement efforts on the most violent offenders a d partners with locally based
prevention and reentry programs for lasting
reductions in crime.
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