Laurinburg Man Sentenced To 50 Months In Prison For Possession Of A Firearm By A Convicted Felon

GREENSBORO, N.C. – A Laurinburg man who fled from police into an occupied home was sentenced to federal prison today, announced Matthew G.T. Martin, United States Attorney for the Middle District of North Carolina.

JERRY LEE ELLERBE JR. pleaded guilty on August 8, 2018, to possession of a firearm by a previously convicted felon. ELLERBE was sentenced byUnited States District JudgeWilliam L. Osteen Jr. to 50 months of imprisonment, followed by 3 years of supervised release.

On April 16, 2018, Laurinburg Police Sergeant Zachary Van Horn attempted to stop the car ELLERBE was driving, after seeing ELLERBE fail to observe a stop sign. ELLERBE did not stop when Sgt. Van Horn used his police blue lights and siren, and instead, took off at a high rate of speed, running through other stops signs and coming to a stop on a dead-end road. ELLERBE fled on foot into a wooded area near a residential neighborhood.

Sgt. Van Horn saw a woman outside a residence who told him that someone just ran inside her house. ELLERBE then came out of that house and was detained by police. Officers returned to the car from which ELLERBE fled and found a Glock .357 pistol on the driver’s seat, loaded with 15 rounds in the magazine and one round in the chamber. They also found marijuana, a digital scale, and pills.

ELLERBE had been convicted in Scotland County of felony possession with intent to sell and deliver marijuana, and was on supervised probation at the time he was encountered by Sgt. Van Horn.

This case was investigated by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives and the Laurinburg Police Department, and prosecuted by Assistant United States Anand P. Ramaswamy for the Middle District of North Carolina.

###