TAnchorage, Alaska B U.S. Attorney Karen L. Loeffler announced that a resident from Unalakleet, Alaska was sentenced in federal court in Anchorage for one count of being a felon in possession of a firearm. 

Tauna Showalter, 29, from Unalakleet, Alaska, was sentenced on Tuesday, September 4, 2012,  by United States District Court Judge Sharon L. Gleason to 24 months in prison and 3 years of supervised release.

According to Assistant U.S. Attorney Kelly Cavanaugh, on February 10, 2012, around 1:30 a.m., in Unalakleet, Alaska, Unalakleet Police Officers observed Showalter fire multiple shots from a rifle out the window of his grandmother’s residence.  Alaska State Troopers responded to the residence the next day and took possession of a Romanian, model: M69, .22 caliber, S/N L-9263.  This rifle had been identified as the rifle possessed by the defendant.  Mr. Showalter has a prior conviction for a crime punishable by more than one year imprisonment.

            Showalter was prosecuted as part of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Alaska’s Rural Prosecution Initiative, a part of the Department of Justice’s commitment to improved public safety for rural Alaska and Alaskan tribal communities.

            Ms. Loeffler commended the Alaska State Troopers, Unalakleet Police Department, and Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives for the investigation leading to the successful prosecution of Mr. Showalter.

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