Convicted Felon Who Possessed a Gun While Awaiting Sentencing on a Federal Firearms Charge Sentenced to Federal Prison Again

A convicted felon who illegally possessed a firearm as a felon was sentenced on September 26, 2025, to nearly five years in federal prison.

Edward Earl Roby, Jr., age 28, from Waterloo, Iowa, received the prison term after a May 13, 2025 guilty plea to possession of a firearm by a felon.

In July 2021, Waterloo law enforcement officers discovered a gun in Roby’s car during a traffic stop.  In December 2021, Roby plead guilty in federal court in Cedar Rapids to being a felon in possession of a gun for the July 2021 incident.  Roby was allowed to remain released after his guilty plea.

In February 2022, while he was awaiting sentencing in federal court, law enforcement officers found Roby in a car that had been reported as being involved in a shots fired incident.  Shortly after 4:00 a.m. on February 6, 2022, officers responded to the scene of a shooting after a report that the shots had been fired from a red car.  Officers saw such a car and attempted to stop it.  The car fled from officers.  After a short chase, the car stopped.  Officers found three people inside, including Roby who was in the backseat.

Law enforcement officers retraced the path of the chase.  While doing so, they found a .40 caliber Smith & Wesson handgun in a Crown Royal bag along the path.  It was laying on top of a snowbank and appeared to have been thrown there recently.  Officers also recovered six .40 caliber shell casings from near the scene of the shooting.  The .40 caliber Smith & Wesson had a six-capacity magazine attached to it.  The magazine was empty.  Later DNA testing revealed that Roby’s DNA was on the slide and grip of the handgun.

Roby was sentenced in Cedar Rapids by United States District Court Chief Judge C.J. Williams.  Dickerson was sentenced to 57 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.

In July 2022, Roby was sentenced to 41 months’ imprisonment for the case related to his possession of a firearm in July 2021.

Roby 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 a Federal Task Force composed of the Waterloo Police Department, Federal Bureau of Investigation, and Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms assisted by the Black Hawk County Sheriff’s Office and Cedar Falls Police Department.

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.

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

The case file numbers are 21-CR-2057 and 25-CR-02015.  

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