Selling Two Guns Leads to Over Three Years in Federal Prison for Convicted Felon

A Nashua man with multiple prior felony convictions who sold two firearms in July 2018 was sentenced today to more than three years in federal prison.

Dalton Mathias Prochaska, age 27, from Nashua, Iowa, received the prison term after a November 14, 2018 guilty plea to being a felon in possession of a firearm.

In a plea agreement, Prochaska admitted selling two guns to different people.  Within a five-day period in July 2018, Prochaska sold a 9mm pistol and a .45 caliber pistol.  Prochaska was previously convicted of three felony offenses, two burglaries and a forgery.

Prochaska was sentenced in Cedar Rapids by United States District Court Judge C. J. Williams.  Prochaska was sentenced to 37 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.

Prochaska 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 Emily K. Nydle and investigated by Nashua Police Department, the Iowa State Patrol, Chickasaw Sheriff’s 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 18-Cr-2056.

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