TREASURE VALLEY MAN TO SERVE SIX YEARS IN FEDERAL PRISON

Treasure Valley resident Derrick Lamont Dodge, 31, will serve six years in federal prison for unlawfully possessing a firearm, U.S. Attorney Tom Moss announced.

Dodge was apprehended by the Meridian City Police Department on April 27, 2008, after Walmart employees reported his suspicious behavior. Specifically, on April 27, 2008, Dodge purchased a box of ammunition from Walmart. After purchasing the ammunition, store employees watched Dodge walk to a vehicle in the parking lot, where he sat in the vehicle for a few minutes and then returned to the store, claiming the box of ammunition was missing five bullets. After giving Dodge a refund, the store called police and gave the license plate for the defendant’s vehicle.

Later, officers with the Meridian City Police Department stopped Dodge’s vehicle, where they found a loaded pistol in Dodge’s possession. They later determined that the gun was loaded with the same five rounds that Dodge had purchased earlier from Walmart. At the time, Dodge was on federal supervised release for prior convictions out of Oregon for felon in possession of a firearm and escape.

On January 13, 2009, Dodge pleaded guilty to being a felon in possession of a firearm and violating the conditions of his federal supervised release. On March 30, 2009, he was sentenced to serve six years in federal prison by Chief U.S. District Judge Edward J. Lodge at the Federal Courthouse in Boise. After serving his prison sentence, Dodge will spend three years on supervised release.

Dodge’s case was investigated by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, the Treasure Valley Metro Violent Crimes Task Force, and the Meridian City Police Department. His prosecution was part of Idaho’s Project Safe Neighborhoods Program, which seeks to reduce gun violence in Idaho.