Armed Felon Convicted

BATON ROUGE, LA –United States Attorney Walt Green announced that DEONTEZ K, MAYFIELD, age 27, of Baton Rouge, Louisiana, pled guilty today before U.S. District Judge John W. deGravelles to possessing a firearm while a convicted felon.  His sentencing date has not yet been set. 

MAYFIELD’s conviction arises from a chain of events that occurred in the early morning hours (1:40 am) of July 6, 2016.  MAYFIELD approached a fully marked East Baton Rouge Parish Sheriff’s Office unit with his high beams on and proceeded to tailgate within a few feet of the vehicle and then backed off of the vehicle about 50 feet repeatedly.  The EBRSO sergeant driving the unit changed lanes several times and MAYFIELD changed lanes also, each time staying directly behind the EBRSO unit.  The sergeant maneuvered his unit and was able to get behind MAYFIELD and activated his emergency lights to initiate a traffic stop.   MAYFIELD fled briefly before slowing his vehicle to a coast and exiting out of the driver’s side door, as he approached the dead end of the street.  As MAYFIELD exited, he dropped a Ruger, Model 9E, 9mm pistol, equipped with laser sights and loaded with 16 rounds of ammunition.

At the time of his illegal possession of the firearm, MAYFIELD had previous convictions for simple burglary.  He was convicted of Simple Burglary on September 9, 2008 in the 19^th Judicial District of Louisiana, case number 05-08-0868; 12 counts of Simple Burglary on March 2, 2010 in the 18^th Judicial District of Louisiana, case number 095263; and 8 counts of Simple Burglary on March 2, 2010 in the 18^th Judicial District of Louisiana, case number 095826.    

U.S. Attorney Green stated: “The circumstances of this case are deeply troubling.  It takes little imagination to appreciate how badly things could have gone that night.  Armed felons represent a clear danger to our entire community and will be aggressively pursued by our office, together with the ATF and our other federal, state, and local partners.” 

ATF Resident Agent-in-Charge Antonio L. Pittman stated: “The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives will continue to work closely with our federal, state, and local partners to provide a safe environment for everyone to live.  ATF is proud to work with the United States Attorney’s Office to take a potentially violent offender from our streets and neighborhoods.”

This matter was handled by the United States Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Louisiana, the Baton Rouge Police Department and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF), with the cooperation of the District Attorney’s Office for the Nineteenth Judicial District.   The matter is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Jennifer M. Kleinpeter who serves as a Deputy Criminal Chief.