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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

GREENVILLE, N. C. - United States Attorney Frank D. Whitney announced that ANTONIO DAVIS, 35, of Vanceboro, N. C., was sentenced in federal court in Greenville on Monday, June 6, 2005. Following a jury trial,DAVIS had been convicted on December 15, 2004, of being a felon in possession of a firearm. A federal grand jury had indicted him on June 10, 2004.

U. S. District Judge Malcolm J. Howard sentenced DAVIS to 188 months in prison, to be followed by a supervised release term of five years.

According to testimony at his trial, on December 1, 2002,DAVIS was stopped for speeding in Pamlico County by a North Carolina Highway Patrol trooper. During a subsequent search of the vehicle, the trooper recovered a .25 caliber semi-automatic pistol from underneath DAVIS's seat. It was determined that the pistol previously had been stolen from a pawn shop in Ayden, N. C. DAVIS was sentenced under the provisions of the federal Armed Career Criminal Act, which mandates at least 15 years in prison for those with three or more prior violent or drug trafficking felony convictions. At the time of his indictment in this case, DAVIS had amassed two felony armed robbery convictions and one felony breaking and entering conviction.

Investigation of the case was conducted by the North Carolina Highway Patrol and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives as a part of Project Safe Neighborhoods, the Justice Department's national initiative to reduce gun crime. Assistant U. S. Attorney John H. Bennett of the Greenville branch office 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.