NEWS RELEASE

OFFICE OF THE UNITED STATES ATTORNEY

WESTERN DISTRICT OF MISSOURI

JOHN F. WOOD

Contact Don Ledford, Public Affairs ● (816) 426-4220 ● 400 East Ninth Street, Room 5510 ● Kansas City, MO 64106

www.usdoj.gov/usao/mow/index.html

JANUARY 8, 2008

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

JEFFERSON CITY MAN PLEADS GUILTY

TO ILLEGAL FIREARM

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. – John F. Wood, United States Attorney for the Western District of Missouri, announced today that a Jefferson City, Mo., man has pleaded guilty in federal court to illegally possessing a firearm.

Barnard Lamount Reed, 38, of Jefferson City, pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge Scott O. Wright on Wednesday, Jan. 7, 2009, to being a felon in possession of a firearm. Reed’s jury trial on that charge had been scheduled to begin the same day.

Reed was in possession of a loaded Sturm, Ruger and Company .22-magnum revolver on April 6, 2006.

On April 6, 2006, police officers executed a search warrant at Reed’s residence and found the firearm under the mattress in the master bedroom. Officers also found 15 individually wrapped bags of crack cocaine and eight individually wrapped bags of heroin underneath the mattress, which resulted in state charges for which Reed has already been sentenced.

Under federal law, it is illegal for anyone convicted of a felony to be in possession of any firearm or ammunition. Reed has a 2000 criminal felony conviction for possession of marijuana in St. Louis, Mo., a 1995 criminal felony conviction for possession of crack cocaine in St. Louis, and a 1992 criminal felony conviction for two counts of possession of cocaine in St. Louis.

Under federal statutes, Reed is subject to a sentence of up to 10 years in federal prison without parole, plus a fine up to $250,000. A sentencing hearing will be scheduled after the completion of a presentence investigation by the United States Probation Office.

This case is being prosecuted by Special Assistant U.S. Attorney Lauren Kummerer. It was investigated by the Jefferson City, Mo., Police Department and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

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