District Man Sentenced to 72 Months for Federal Firearms Offense

           WASHINGTON – Michael Wells, 48, of Southeast, D.C., was sentenced today to 72 months in prison for a federal firearms charge stemming from his possession of a loaded firearm on March 23, 2018, in the 600 block of Raleigh Place, Southeast, announced U.S. Attorney Jessie K. Liu and Peter Newsham, Chief of the Metropolitan Police Department (MPD).

           Wells pled guilty in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia to one count of unlawful possession of a firearm and ammunition by a person convicted of a crime punishable by imprisonment for a term exceeding one year and one count of possession of phencyclidine (PCP) on May 23, 2019. The Honorable Richard J. Leon sentenced Wells today and required an additional 36 months of supervised release after Wells’ incarceration.

           According to the government’s evidence, on March 23, 2018, at approximately 5:00 p.m., MPD was conducting drug enforcement operations in the 600 block of Raleigh Place, Southeast. Officers observed Wells purchase PCP from another individual. Wells, along with others, were stopped by police. In Wells’ left jacket pocket, law enforcement recovered a wet PCP cigarette, and inside of Wells’ backpack, they located a RG14 six-cylinder loaded revolver as well as 23 .22 caliber bullets.

           At the time of his arrest, Wells had previously been convicted of a number of felonies, including the same charge—Unlawful Possession of a Firearm—out of U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia in 2000. Wells had also previously been convicted of several narcotics trafficking offenses out of D.C. Superior Court.

           In announcing the sentence, U.S. Attorney Liu and Chief Newsham, commended the work of the MPD officers who investigated the case. They also acknowledged the efforts of those who worked on the case from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia, including Assistant U.S. Attorney Gregory Rosen.