Idabel Resident Sentenced For Stealing Firearm From Federally Licensed Firearms Dealer

MUSKOGEE, OKLAHOMA – The United States Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Oklahoma announced that J’Quarius J’Vontay Austin, age 18, of Idabel, Oklahoma, was sentenced to 41 months in prison for one count of Stealing Firearm from a Federal Firearms Licensed Dealer.

The charge arose from an investigation by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, the Broken Bow Police Department, and the Idabel Police Department.

On March 24, 2025, Austin pleaded guilty to the charge.  According to investigators, on December 23, 2024, Austin and others burglarized a Broken Bow gun and pawn shop and stole 18 firearms and ammunition.  Law enforcement recovered four of the stolen firearms while investigating a shootout in Idabel that occurred three days after the Broken Bow theft.

This case is part of Operation Take Back America, a nationwide initiative that marshals the full resources of the Department of Justice to repel the invasion of illegal immigration, achieve the total elimination of cartels and transnational criminal organizations (TCOs), and protect our communities from the perpetrators of violent crime.  Operation Take Back America streamlines efforts and resources from the Department’s Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Forces (OCDETFs) and Project Safe Neighborhood (PSN).

The Honorable John F. Heil, III, U.S. District Judge in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Oklahoma, presided over the hearing.  Austin will remain in the custody of the U.S. Marshals Service pending transportation to a designated United States Bureau of Prisons facility to serve a non-paroleable sentence of incarceration.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Kevin Gross represented the United States.