George E. B. Holding

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

THURSDAY - November 8, 2007

14 YEAR SENTENCE FOR CREATION AND TRANSFER OF A SAWED OFF SILENCED WEAPON USED IN A SUBSEQUENT MURDER

Raleigh - United States Attorney George E. B. Holding announced that in federal court today United States District Judge James C. Dever, III, sentenced RANDY J. LINNIMAN, 42, of Jacksonville, North Carolina to 168 months imprisonment. A Federal Grand Jury indicted LINNIMAN on March 28, 2007, charging him with five counts of firearms’ violations and one count of evidence tampering. LINNIMAN entered a plea of guilty on July 16, 2007 to two firearms’ violations involving unlawful transfer of a sawed off weapon with a silencer and unlawful possession of firearms with altered serial numbers. LINNIMAN sawed off a .22 calber rifle and created a silencer attachment. He provided the manufactured weapon to Ruben Wright, Jr. Wright used the weapon to murder James Patrick Taulbee, a retired United States Marine Master Sergeant, in Jacksonville, North Carolina, on January 5, 2004. Following the murder, LINNIMAN took steps to destroy and dispose of the weapon and other evidence of the crime at the request of Wright. Wright was subsequently convicted of First Degree Murder in Onslow County Superior Court in Jacksonville, North Carolina on January 20, 2006. LINNIMAN was acquitted of Murder in Onslow County Superior Court in Jacksonville on March 27, 2006.

Investigation of the case was conducted by the Naval Criminal Investigative Service with the assistance of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms and the Onslow County Sheriff’s Department. Special Assistant United States Attorney Mark Griffith and Assistant United States Attorney David L. Hayden prosecuted 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.