new years' eve arrest in waterloo leads to gun conviction
Contact: Peter Deegan
A marijuana user who had a loaded gun in his pocket on New Years’ Eve 2009 pled guilty on February 8, 2011, in federal court in Cedar Rapids.
Asa Winters, age 21, from Waterloo, Iowa, was convicted of one count of being an illegal drug user in possession of a firearm.
On December 31, 2009, Winters was an unlawful user of marijuana. At about 9 o’clock that night, Waterloo police were called to a liquor store on a suspicious person report. Winters was frisked, and, in his pocket, he had a loaded 9mm handgun with an obliterated serial number. He also had a user amount of marijuana.
Federal law prohibits an illegal drug user from possessing a firearm or ammunition. There is no such prohibition under Iowa law.
Sentencing before United States District Court Chief Judge Linda R. Reade will be set after a presentence report is prepared. Winters remains in custody of the United States Marshal pending sentencing. Winters faces up to 10 years’ imprisonment without the possibility of parole, a fine of up to $250,000, a mandatory special assessment of $100, and a term of supervised release of up to 3 years.
This case is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Bob Teig as part of Project Safe Neighborhoods, a cooperative local, state, and federal program aimed at the enhanced prosecution of gun crimes. The case was investigated by the Waterloo Police Department.
Court file information is available at https://ecf.iand.uscourts.gov/cgi-bin/login.pl. The case file number is CR 10-2049.
