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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

Wednesday - July 2, 2003

RALEIGH - United States Attorney Frank D. Whitney announced that MARVIN MAC MELVIN was sentenced in federal court in Raleigh on Monday, June 30, 2003, for being a felon in possession of a firearm and committing two armed robberies. Senior U. S. District Judge W. Earl Britt sentenced MELVIN to 22 years and eight months imprisonment.

According to the indictment and evidence presented in court, on March 30, 2002, MELVIN possessed a .25 caliber pistol, despite previous felony convictions, and used it to rob both a convenience store and a restaurant.

MELVIN, 27, of Elizabethtown, N. C., was indicted by a federal grand jury on December 11, 2002, and pled guilty on May 7, 2003. This prosecution is part of Project Safe Neighborhoods, the President's initiative to reduce gun violence throughout America. Investigation of the case was conducted by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms and the Police Departments of Elizabethtown, N. C., and Lumberton, N. C. Assistant U. S. Attorney Clay C. Wheeler prosecuted the case for the United States.

News releases are available on the U. S. Attorney's web page at www.usdoj.gov/usao/nce within 48 hours of release.