A man who escaped from a Cedar Rapids, Iowa, halfway house while serving a sentence for unlawful firearms possession was sentenced on August 18, 2022, to more than an additional year in federal prison. Ricky Joe Vaughn, age 43, from Cedar Rapids, Iowa, received the prison term after a March 8, 2022 guilty plea to one count of escape from custody.
At Vaughn’s plea and sentencing hearings, the evidence showed that Vaughn was sentenced in June 2015 to serve 96 months in federal prison for possessing firearms and ammunition illegally. Vaughn was scheduled to be released from a federal prison in Michigan in February 2022. In November 2021, the U.S. Bureau of Prisons (“BOP”) granted Vaughn the privilege of home confinement. In December 2021, after Vaughn violated the terms of his home confinement, the BOP rescinded Vaughn’s home confinement privileges and ordered Vaughn to reside in a Cedar Rapids halfway house. On January 10, 2022, while a resident of the halfway house, Vaughn cut off his ankle monitor at his workplace and fled in another person’s vehicle. The United States Marshal’s Service arrested Vaughn three days later at the other person’s apartment.
Vaughn was sentenced in Cedar Rapids by United States District Court Judge C.J. Williams. Vaughn was sentenced to 21 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.
Vaughn has an extensive criminal history extending back to 2001. In addition to his prior federal firearms conviction, Vaughn’s criminal history in state court includes felony convictions for theft and conspiracy to manufacture methamphetamine. Vaughn 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 Tim Vavricek and investigated by the USMS.
Court file information at https://ecf.iand.uscourts.gov/cgi-bin/login.pl.
The case file number is 22-CR-12.
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