A convicted felon who unlawfully possessed a handgun was sentenced today to six years in federal prison.
Mitchell Berry, age 29, from Waterloo, Iowa, received the prison term after a March 22, 2021 guilty plea to one count of being a felon in possession of a firearm.
Evidence at sentencing showed that Berry was in a car stopped by Waterloo police officers on December 31, 2019. Officers found a handgun in the car. Berry’s DNA was found on the trigger and the magazine of the gun.
Berry has six prior adult criminal convictions. Two of the convictions involved firearms. In 2012, he was convicted of carrying weapons, specifically a .22 caliber handgun. In 2015, he was convicted of conspiracy to intimidate with a dangerous weapon and possession of a firearm as a felon.
Berry was sentenced in Cedar Rapids by United States District Court Judge C.J. Williams. Berry was sentenced to 72 months’ imprisonment. He must also serve a three-year term of supervised release after the prison term. There is no parole in the federal system.
Berry 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 Anthony Morfitt and investigated by a Federal Task Force composed of the Waterloo Police Department, Federal Bureau of Investigation, and Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms assisted by the Black Hawk County Sheriff’s Office and Cedar Falls Police Department.
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.
Court file information at https://ecf.iand.uscourts.gov/cgi-bin/login.pl.
The case file number is 20-CR-2032.
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