Webster County Man Pleads Guilty to Illegal Possession of Firearm

A man who illegally possessed a gun pled guilty January 9, 2020, in federal court in Sioux City.

Michael Wayne Holton, 32, from Mason City, Iowa, was convicted of possession of a firearm by a felon.  Holton was previously convicted of contraband in a correctional facility and domestic abuse assault, both in the Iowa District Court for Cerro Gordo County.

At the plea hearing, Holton pled guilty to being a felon in possession of a firearm.  Evidence in this case revealed that Holton admitted that on June 22, 2019, he grabbed the gun, a Taurus 9mm, from another person while outside of Kingz Lounge in Fort Dodge, Iowa and shot the gun multiple times near a crowd of people.

Sentencing before United States District Court Chief Judge Leonard T. Strand will be set after a presentence report is prepared.  Holton remains in custody of the United States Marshal pending sentencing.  Holton faces a possible maximum sentence of 10 years’ imprisonment, a $250,000 fine, and not more than 3 years of supervised release following any imprisonment.

The case is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Mikala Steenholdt and was investigated by the Fort Dodge Police Department, Webster County Sheriff’s Office, and Iowa Department of Criminalistics Laboratory. 

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

The case file number is 19-3050. 

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