Newport Resident Sentenced to Serve 188 Months in Prison for Unlawfully Possessing Firearms

GREENEVILLE, Tenn. – On Oct 25, 2016, Freddie Coufax Swaggerty, 52, of Newport, Tenn., was sentenced by the Honorable R. Leon Jordan, U.S. District Court Judge, to serve 188 months in federal prison.  Swaggerty was also ordered to remain under supervised release by the U.S. Probation Office for five years after he is released from federal prison and pay a $100 special assessment. 

After a jury trial, Swaggerty was convicted in May 2016 of two counts of being a convicted felon in possession of a firearm.  Evidence produced at trial established that Swaggerty approached Cocke County Sheriff’s Officers on the Cocke County Courthouse lawn with three loaded firearms protruding from his pockets. 

The charges against Swaggerty were the result of an investigation conducted by the Cocke County Sheriff’s Office.  Assistant U.S. Attorneys Helen Smith and Corey Shipley represented the United States.                                                       

This case was brought as part of Project Safe Neighborhoods (PSN), a comprehensive national strategy that creates local partnerships with law enforcement agencies to effectively enforce existing gun laws.  It provides more options to prosecutors, allowing them to utilize local, state, and federal laws to ensure that criminals who commit gun crime face tough sentences.  PSN gives each federal district the flexibility it needs to focus on individual challenges that a specific community faces. 

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