Dubuque Man Sentenced to Federal Prison for Being a Prohibited Person in Possession of a Firearm

A man who possessed a firearm as a felon and unlawful drug user was sentenced today to nine years in federal prison.

Eric Thomas, age 49, from Dubuque, Iowa, received the prison term after an August 7, 2023 guilty plea to one count of being a prohibited person in possession of a firearm.

At the plea hearing, Thomas admitted that, in January 2023, he possessed a Ruger pistol after having been convicted of multiple felonies and while being an unlawful drug user.  Evidence at the sentencing hearing showed that, on January 23, 2023, Thomas sold a mixture of heroin and fentanyl to another person while at Thomas’s residence.  That same day, law enforcement officers searched Thomas’s residence and located a Ruger pistol and 2.14 grams of a mixture containing heroin and fentanyl in Thomas’s bedroom.

Thomas was sentenced in Cedar Rapids by United States District Court Chief Judge Leonard T. Strand.  Thomas was sentenced to 108 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.

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

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.

The case was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Devra Hake and was investigated by the Dubuque Drug Task Force (consisting of the Dubuque County Sheriff’s Office and the Dubuque Police Department).

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

The case file number is 23-CR-1012.

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