A drug user who possessed a loaded .40 caliber pistol was sentenced today to two years in federal prison.
Shuntez Porter, age 23, from Waterloo, Iowa, received the prison term after a March 15, 2021 guilty plea to possession of a firearm by a drug user.
In a plea agreement, Porter admitted he was a passenger in a car stopped in Waterloo on August 1, 2020. Police searched the car and found a pistol inside the glovebox. The car had an odor of burnt marijuana and small pieces of marijuana were found around the passenger seat. Porter’s urine was positive for marijuana metabolites. A DNA test comparing swabs taken from the firearm to Porter’s DNA, showed there was strong support that the DNA from the gun was Porter’s DNA.
Porter was sentenced in Cedar Rapids by United States District Court Judge C.J. Williams. Porter was sentenced to 24 months’ imprisonment and fined $100. He must also serve a three-year term of supervised release after the prison term. There is no parole in the federal system.
This case was brought as part of Project Safe Neighborhoods (PSN). PSN is 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 and partners with locally based prevention and reentry programs for lasting reductions in crime.
Porter is being held in the United States Marshal’s custody until he can be transported to a federal prison.
The case was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Elizabeth Dupuich and investigated by the Waterloo Police Department and the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
Court file information at https://ecf.iand.uscourts.gov/cgi-bin/login.pl.
The case file number is 21-CR-2004.
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