Marijuana User Sentenced to a Year in Federal Prison for Unlawfully Possessing Guns

An illegal user of controlled substances who unlawfully possessed multiple guns was sentenced today to a year in federal prison.

Henry Charles Haas, III, age 42, from Dubuque, Iowa, received the prison term after a guilty plea to being an unlawful user of controlled substances in possession of a firearm.

Information at sentencing showed that law enforcement searched Haas’s home in Dubuque.  During the search, officers found seven guns that Haas later admitted he possessed.  The guns included an AK-47 rifle that was capable of accepting a high-capacity magazine, multiple shotguns, and multiple handguns.  Officers also found hundreds of shotgun shells and handgun magazines in Haas’s bedroom.  Haas was an unlawful user of marijuana at the time he possessed the guns. 

Haas was sentenced in Cedar Rapids by United States District Court Judge C.J. Williams.  Haas was sentenced to 12 months’ and one day in prison.  He was ordered to pay a $2,000 fine.  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.

The case was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Anthony Morfitt and investigated the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Dubuque Police Department, and the Dubuque County Sheriff’s Office.   

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

The case file number is 19-cr-1023.

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