"One Man crime spree" gets life in prison
Contact: Peter Deegan
A man who robbed a motel using stolen firearms was sentenced on March 5, 2010, to life in federal prison.
Kevin Eugene Lee, 32, from Cedar Rapids, Iowa, received the prison term after a guilty plea to one count of possessing stolen firearms and one count of possessing firearms as a felon.
At the guilty plea, Lee admitted he possessed one stolen assault rifle and one stolen tactical shotgun after previously being convicted of a felony offense.
Lee was sentenced in Cedar Rapids by United States District Court Chief Judge Linda R. Reade. At sentencing, Chief Judge Reade described Lee as a “one man crime spree” and found that Lee used the stolen firearms to lead two others, including a minor, in robbing a motel in Coralville, Iowa. During the daytime robbery, Lee restrained the employee on duty with duct tape. The Court also found Lee trafficked in firearms when he arranged the sale of the two stolen firearms to a person Lee knew to be a felon and drug user.
Lee was sentenced to life imprisonment. Lee was eligible for life in prison because he has three prior convictions for violent felonies – including injury to a child, escape from a penal institution, and burglary. A special assessment of $200 was imposed. There is no parole in the federal system.
Lee is being held in the United States Marshal’s custody until he can be transported to a federal prison.
This case was prosecuted as part of Project Safe Neighborhoods, a cooperative local, state and federal program aimed at the enhanced prosecution of gun crimes. The case was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Rebecca Goodgame Ebinger and investigated by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives, the Coralville Police Department, the Johnson County Sheriff’s Office, the Cedar Rapids Police Department, the Marion Police Department, the Linn County Sheriff’s Office, and the DEA Task Force.
Court file information is available at https://ecf.iand.uscourts.gov/cgi-bin/login.pl. The case file number is (e.g. 09-12-1).
