A man who sold crack cocaine within 1,000 feet of a public middle school in 2009 and who unlawfully possessed a gun in 2007 pled guilty to those crimes on March 12, 2010, in federal court in Cedar Rapids.

DeShawn LaMont Hull, age 28, from Cedar Rapids, Iowa, was convicted of one count of distributing crack cocaine within a protected zone and one count of being a convicted felon and domestic abuser in possession of a firearm.

At the plea hearing, Hull admitted that, in November 2009, he sold crack cocaine within 1,000 feet of McKinley Middle School in Cedar Rapids after having previously been convicted of a felony drug offense. He also admitted that, in July 2007, he was a convicted felon and domestic abuser who possessed a .22 caliber handgun in violation of federal law.

Sentencing before United States District Court Chief Judge Linda R. Reade will be set after a presentence report is prepared. Hull has been detained pending sentencing. Hull faces a mandatory minimum sentence of one year imprisonment and a possible maximum sentence of 70 years’ imprisonment, a $4,250,000 fine, $200 in special assessments, and up to life of supervised release following any imprisonment.

The case is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorneys Dan Huitink and C.J. Williams and was investigated by the Cedar Rapids Safe Streets Task Force (SSTF). The SSTF is sponsored by the Department of Justice and is composed of officers and agents from the FBI, Cedar Rapids Police Department, Marion Police Department, and the 6th Judicial District Department of Correctional Services. The SSTF was created to address violent crime activity in, and around, Cedar Rapids, Iowa.

Court file information is available at https://ecf.iand.uscourts.gov/cgi-bin/login.pl. The case file number is CR 10-08.

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