Adair County Resident Sentenced For Federal Firearm Crime

MUSKOGEE, OKLAHOMA – The United States Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Oklahoma announces that Ralph Gene Carloss, age 72, of Welling, Oklahoma, was sentenced to 46 months imprisonment for illegal possession of a firearm and ammunition.

The charge arose from an investigation by the Adair County Sheriff’s Office and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

On August 11, 2023, Carloss pleaded guilty to one count of Felon in Possession of Firearm and Ammunition.  According to investigators, on April 11, 2023, after fleeing from law enforcement in his vehicle, Carloss was apprehended and found in possession of a firearm and 16 rounds of ammunition after having been previously convicted of a crime punishable by more than one year imprisonment.

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 gun violence, and to make our neighborhoods safer for everyone.  On May 26, 2021, the department launched a violent crime reduction strategy strengthening PSN based on these core principles: fostering trust and legitimacy in our communities, supporting community-based organizations that help prevent violence from occurring in the first place, setting focused and strategic enforcement priorities, and measuring the results.

The Honorable William P. Johnson, Chief U.S. District Judge in the United States District Court for the District of New Mexico, sitting by assignment, presided over the sentencing hearing in Muskogee, Oklahoma.  Carloss will remain in the custody of the U.S. Marshal pending transportation to a designated United States Bureau of Prisons facility to serve a non-paroleable sentence of incarceration.

Assistant United States Attorney T. Cameron McEwen represented the United States.