sioux city felon sentenced to prison for possessing firearms
Contact: Peter Deegan
A convicted felon who possessed firearms was sentenced on July 6, 2011, to more than 10 years in federal prison.
Francisco Lee Juarez, age 35, from Sioux City, Iowa, received the prison term after a January 25, 2011, guilty plea to one count of a felon in possession of firearms and one count of possession of a firearm with an altered serial number.
In a plea agreement, Juarez admitted that in November of 2009, he set up a deal between two people to trade firearms for drugs. Juarez acted as the middleman, and traded methamphetamine for firearms at a residence in Sioux City.
Juarez is a felon, having been previously convicted of assault with intent to commit sexual abuse in the Iowa District Court for Woodbury County in April of 1994; possession of a controlled substance in the Nebraska District Court for Dakota County in July of 1998; and assault while participating in a felony in the Iowa District Court for Woodbury County in October of 2001.
Juarez was sentenced in Sioux City by United States District Court Judge Donald E. O’Brien. Juarez was sentenced to 124 months’ imprisonment. A special assessment of $200 was imposed. He must also serve a 3-year term of supervised release after the prison term. There is no parole in the federal system.
Juarez is being held in the United States Marshal’s custody until he can be transported to a federal prison.
The case was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Kevin C. Fletcher and 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 Jefferson, South Dakota, Police Department; Union County, South Dakota, Sheriff’s Office; Sioux City, Iowa, Police Department; and Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives.
Court file information is available at https://ecf.iand.uscourts.gov/cgi-bin/login.pl. The case file number is CR10-4068.
