FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

WEDNESDAY - December 5, 2007

NEW BERN MAN SENTENCED TO 195 MONTHS IN PRISON

GREENVILLE - United States Attorney George E. B. Holding announced that COYT BRYANT, 40, of New Bern, North Carolina, was sentenced in federal court yesterday before Senior United States District Judge Malcolm J. Howard to 195 months in prison followed by five years of supervised release.

On May 8, 2007, BRYANT pleaded guilty to being a felon in possession of a firearm. The defendant was charged in an indictment filed on May 10, 2006.On August 17, 2004, BRYANT was found by New Bern police officers with a Mossburg 12-gauge shotgun. BRYANT had previously used the weapon to shoot a victim in a drive-by shooting, a crime for which he served 21 months in the North Carolina Department of Correction. Prior to this incident, BRYANT had amassed three prior felony drug convictions and two prior felony convictions for violent offenses, including aggravated assault and attempted burglary. He was sentenced under the provisions of the federal Armed Career Criminal Act, which mandates at least 15 years in prison without parole for those with three or more prior violent or drug trafficking felony convictions.

Investigation of the case was conducted by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and the New Bern Police Department as a part of Project Safe Neighborhoods, the Justice Department’s national initiative to reduce gun crime. Assistant United States Attorney John H. Bennett of the Greenville branch office is handling the case for the Government.

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