Cedar Rapids Felon Who Possessed a Sawed-off Shotgun Sentenced to Over Four Years in Prison

A convicted felon who possessed a sawed-off shotgun in his truck was sentenced April 26, 2023, to more than four years in federal prison.

Joseph John Senger, age 34, from Cedar Rapids, Iowa, received the prison term after a November 9, 2022 guilty plea to unlawfully possessing a destructive device.

In a plea agreement and at the guilty plea hearing, Senger admitted he was driving his truck in Cedar Rapids on April 29, 2022.  Cedar Rapids Police officers stopped the truck after it drove over a curb and onto a sidewalk.  As they approached the truck, officers saw a methamphetamine pipe.  Officers then searched the truck and found four grams of methamphetamine, more methamphetamine pipes, seventeen shotgun shells, and a set of brass knuckles.  Finally, officers found a weapon made from a Revelation shotgun.  Both the barrel and the stock of the shotgun had been shortened.  Senger had four shotgun shells on his person.

Senger was sentenced in Cedar Rapids by United States District Court Judge C.J. Williams.  Senger was sentenced to 51 months’ imprisonment.  He must also serve a three-year term of supervised release after the prison term.  There is no parole in the federal system.

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.

Senger is being held in the United States Marshal’s custody until he can be transported to a federal prison.

The case was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Anthony Morfitt and investigated by the Cedar Rapids Police Department and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives. 

Court file information at https://ecf.iand.uscourts.gov/cgi-bin/login.pl. 

The case file number is 22-cr-78.

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