A prohibited person who possessed a firearm was sentenced today to 63 months in federal prison.
Rakeem Leonard, age 31, of Cedar Rapids, Iowa, received the sentence after a February 11, 2022 guilty plea to one count of being a prohibited person in possession of a firearm. At the plea hearing, Leonard admitted that, on July 19, 2021, he possessed a Taurus 9 mm pistol after having been convicted of two felonies and while he was subject to a no contact order.
Leonard was sentenced in Cedar Rapids by United States District Court Judge C.J. Williams. Leonard was sentenced to 63 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.
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.
This case was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Mark Tremmel and was investigated by the High Risk Unit of the Sixth Judicial District Department of Correctional Services, the Cedar Rapids Police Department, and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.
Court file information is available at https://ecf.iand.uscourts.gov/cgi-bin/login.pl.
The case file number is CR 21-53.
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