Bakersfield Man Indicted for Unlawful Possession of Ammunition

FRESNO, Calif. — Raylon Thijay Randle, 24, of Bakersfield, was charged today by a federal grand jury with being a felon in possession of ammunition, Acting U.S. Attorney Phillip A. Talbert announced.

According to court documents, on Aug. 19, 2021, law enforcement officers stopped a vehicle in which Randle was a passenger and discovered that he possessed a 9 mm handgun loaded with 31 rounds of ammunition. Randle cannot lawfully possess firearms or ammunition because he was convicted in 2016 of first degree burglary and in 2018 of being a felon in possession of a firearm.

This case is the product of an investigation by Homeland Security Investigations, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, and the Bakersfield Police Department. Assistant U.S. Attorney Christopher D. Baker is prosecuting the case.

If convicted, Randle faces a maximum statutory penalty of 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine. Any sentence, however, would be determined at the discretion of the court after consideration of any applicable statutory factors and the Federal Sentencing Guidelines, which take into account a number of variables. The charge is only an allegation; the defendant is presumed innocent until and unless proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.

This case is being prosecuted as part of the joint federal, state, and local Project Safe Neighborhoods (PSN) Program, the centerpiece of the Department of Justice’s violent crime reduction efforts. PSN is an evidence-based program proven to be effective at reducing violent crime. Through PSN, a broad spectrum of stakeholders work together to identify the most pressing violent crime problems in the community and develop comprehensive solutions to address them. As part of this strategy, PSN focuses enforcement efforts on the most violent offenders and partners with locally based prevention and reentry programs for lasting reductions in crime.