Validated Gang Member and Felon Sentenced to 10 Years’ Imprisonment for Possessing Loaded Handgun with Extended Magazine

NEW BERN — United States Attorney Robert J. Higdon, Jr., announced that today in federal court, United States District Judge Louise W. Flanagan, sentenced JENOURI ROBERTS, 29, of Wilmington to 120 months’ imprisonment, followed by 3 years of supervised release.  ROBERTS was named in a three-count Superseding Indictment on May 16, 2018, charging him with possession of a firearm by a felon, possession with intent to distribute heroin, and possession of ammunition by a felon.  ROBERTS pled guilty to possession of a firearm by a convicted felon on June 4, 2019.

On January 27, 2018, members of the Wilmington Police Department in Wilmington, North Carolina, conducted a traffic stop on a car with expired plates.  Officers made contact with the driver, JENOURI ROBERTS.  Officers observed that ROBERTS, a convicted felon and validated gang member, began acting nervously as they checked his information in the computer.  Officers decided to conduct a protective frisk for officer safety and asked ROBERTS to step out of the vehicle. While checking the driver’s compartment of the vehicle, officers noticed the outline of the back strap of a pistol between the driver’s seat and the center console.  Officers detained ROBERTS and retrieved a Glock 19 9mm handgun.  The gun, which had been reported stolen, containing a loaded, 15-round magazine.  Beneath the gun, officers found an extended 31-round magazine, loaded with 9mm ammunition.

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 Wilmington Police Department, the New Hanover County Sheriff’s Office, and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) investigated this case.  Assistant United States Attorney Jake D. Pugh represented the government.