RED OAK MAN SENTENCED TO 10 YEARS FOR WEAPONS CHARGE INVOLVED IN ATTEMPTED JAIL BREAK
Des Moines, IA - United States Attorney Matthew G. Whitaker announced today that Stewart James Sellers, 34, was sentenced to ten (10) years in federal prison for the unlawful possession of an unregistered weapon. This is the maximum possible penalty for that offense.
Sellers pleaded guilty to the charge in U.S. District Court on September 26, 2008. Sentence was imposed on July 22, 2009, by Chief U.S. District Judge Robert W. Pratt, who also order him to serve three years of supervised release after his incarceration, and pay a $100 assessment to the Crime Victim Fund.
Sellers possessed this weapon, a sawed-off shotgun, during an attempted jail break in Montgomery County, Iowa, on January 7, 2008. Sellers was previously sentenced in state court for both escape and the drug offense for which he was being held, and the state court imposed a sentence of five (5) years for each of these offenses, to be served consecutively, for a total of ten (10) years. The ten-year sentence for the federal weapons offense was ordered to be consecutive to the state sentences, resulting in a total, combined sentence of twenty (20) years.
This case was investigated by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, in cooperation with the U.S. Marshals Service, the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation, the Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office, the Montgomery County Attorney’s Office, the Pottawattamie County Sheriff’s Office, the Red Oak Police Department, and the Omaha, NE Police Department.