Bladenboro Man Sentenced to 7 Years’ Imprisonment After Confronting Police With a Semi-Automatic Rifle

RALEIGH — The United States Attorney for the Eastern District of North Carolina, Robert J. Higdon, Jr., announced that today, United States District Judge Louise W. Flanagan sentenced Marcus Theodore Hill, 30, of Bladenboro to 84 months’ imprisonment, followed by 3 years of supervised release.  HILL pled guilty to one count of possession of a firearm by a convicted felon on March 18, 2019. 

The evidence established that during the evening of February 22, 2018, state probation officers were conducting a search of a residence with assistance from a Bladen County Sheriff’s Office detective.   During that search, the detective had stepped outside to retrieve items from his truck when he heard someone yell, “Hey, who is that.”  Looking up, he saw a man’s silhouette under a street lamp.  The detective identified himself as law enforcement, and the man, later identified as the defendant MARCUS HILL, pulled an assault rifle style firearm from behind his back.  In response, the detective drew his weapon, and HILL turned and ran.  The detective and one of the probation officers pursued HILL, who they found crouching with the rifle at a nearby tree line.  Hill gave himself up, and officers seized the firearm, a Norinco SKS 7.62mm semi-automatic rifle with an extended magazine. 

HILL’s federal conviction follows multiple state felony convictions.  In total, he has accrued seven felony drug convictions in Virginia and North Carolina, with multiple convictions in each of the years 2014, 2015, and 2016. 

This case is part of Project Safe Neighborhoods (PSN), a program bringing together all levels of law enforcement and the communities they serve to reduce violent crime and make our neighborhoods safer for everyone.   Since 2017, the United States Department of Justice has reinvigorated the PSN program and has targeted violent criminals, directing all U.S. Attorney’s Offices to work in partnership with federal, state, local, and tribal law enforcement and the local community to develop effective, locally-based strategies to reduce violent crime.

That effort has been implemented through the Take Back North Carolina Initiative of the United States Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of North Carolina. This initiative emphasizes the regional assignment of federal prosecutors to work with law enforcement and District Attorney’s Offices in those communities on a sustained basis to reduce the violent crime rate, drug trafficking, and crimes against law enforcement.

The investigation of this case was conducted by the Bladen County Sheriff’s Office and the North Carolina Department of Public Safety.  Assistant United States Attorney Jake D. Pugh represented the government.