Bryan County Resident Sentenced For False Statement During Purchase Of A Firearm

MUSKOGEE, OKLAHOMA – The United States Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Oklahoma announced that Jonathon Mark Brinlee, age 40, of Calera, Oklahoma, was sentenced to 12 months and one day in prison for one count of False Statement During Purchase of a Firearm.

The charge arose from an investigation by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and the Choctaw Nation Lighthorse Police.

On April 3, 2025, Brinlee pleaded guilty to the charge.  According to investigators, on November 11, 2024, while attempting to redeem a pistol from a Durant pawn broker, Brinlee checked “No” to Question 22i on Form 4473 asking whether the applicant was under any protective order.  Brinlee had been served in person just two days earlier with a protective order from the Choctaw Nation Tribal Court.

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 Ronald A. White, Chief U.S. District Judge in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Oklahoma, presided over the hearing.  Brinlee will remain in the custody of the U.S. Marshals Service pending transportation to a designated prison facility to serve a non-paroleable sentence of incarceration.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Jonathan E. Soverly represented the United States.