Crime Spree Leads to Eight Years in Federal Prison for Waterloo Man

A Waterloo man who went on a crime spree as a teenager in February 2018, was sentenced today to eight years in federal prison.  Griffin Riley Davis, age 20, received the prison term after a December 2, 2019 guilty plea to one count of possession of a firearm by a drug user.

At the guilty plea and sentencing hearings, Davis admitted that on January 21, 2018, when he was 18 years old, he was stopped for speeding in Black Hawk County, Iowa, and officers found an unloaded semiautomatic rifle with a high capacity magazine in his trunk at that time.  Then, on February 5, 2018, and February 6, 2018, officers responded to shots fired incidents in Dysart and Waterloo, Iowa, respectively.  Each incident involved residential homes in which people, including minors, were present.  Officers found spent .40 caliber shell casings at each crime scene.  On February 12, 2018, Davis was recorded in a phone call stating he was going to shoot a minor “and fan down everyone in her car.”

On February 20, 2018, officers stopped a car in Waterloo and saw Davis in the backseat.  Officers smelled marijuana in the car and later found Davis hiding under a blanket.  In the car, officers also found more than 40 grams of marijuana, a digital scale, and a loaded .40 caliber semiautomatic pistol.  The pistol was recently stolen from a residence in Grundy County, Iowa.  Later ballistics testing confirmed that the .40 caliber firearm was the same firearm that discharged at the residences in Dysart and Waterloo earlier that month.

Davis was sentenced in Cedar Rapids by United States District Court Chief Judge Leonard T. Strand.  Davis was sentenced to 96 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 was brought as part of Project Safe Neighborhoods (PSN).  PSN is the centerpiece of the Department of Justice’s violent crime reduction efforts.  PSN is an evidence-based program proven to be effective at reducing violent crime.  Through PSN, a broad spectrum of stakeholders work together to identify the most pressing violent crime problems in the community and develop comprehensive solutions to address them.  As part of this strategy, PSN focuses enforcement efforts on the most violent offenders and partners with locally based prevention and reentry programs for lasting reductions in crime.

This case is also part of Project Guardian, the Department of Justice’s signature initiative to reduce gun violence and enforce federal firearms laws.  Initiated by the Attorney General in the fall of 2019, Project Guardian draws upon the Department’s past successful programs to reduce gun violence; enhances coordination of federal, state, local, and tribal authorities in investigating and prosecuting gun crimes; improves information-sharing by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives when a prohibited individual attempts to purchase a firearm and is denied by the National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS), to include taking appropriate actions when a prospective purchaser is denied by the NICS for mental health reasons; and ensures that federal resources are directed at the criminals posing the greatest threat to our communities.

Davis 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 Attorneys Tim Vavricek and Justin Lightfoot, and investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Waterloo Police Department. 

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

The case file number is 19-CR-2045.

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