POCATELLO – Robert Frank Sorrell, Jr., 38, of Fort Hall, Idaho, was sentenced today in United States District Court to 21 months in prison followed by three years of supervised release for felon in possession of a firearm, U.S. Attorney Wendy J. Olson announced. Chief U.S. District Judge B. Lynn Winmill ordered Sorrell to forfeit the firearms found in his possession at the time of his arrest. He pled guilty to the charge on July 26, 2012.

According to the plea agreement, Fort Hall police arrested Sorrell on October 31, 2011, at his residence on the Shoshone-Bannock Fort Hall Indian Reservation. A search warrant executed at Sorrell’s residence uncovered two .22 caliber rifles, a .357 caliber revolver, and a 12-gauge shotgun. On November 1, 2011, during an interview with Fort Hall police, Sorrell admitted to illegally possessing the firearms. Sorrell is prohibited from possessing firearms due to his 2006 conviction in Bannock County, Idaho, for possession of methamphetamine, a crime punishable by a term of imprisonment exceeding one year.

The case was investigated by the Fort Hall Police Department and Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), and prosecuted as part of Idaho’s Project Safe Neighborhoods Program, which seeks to reduce gun violence in Idaho.