Federal Judge Sentences Rockford Man to Eight Years in Prison for Illegally Possessing Firearm

ROCKFORD — A federal judge has sentenced a Rockford man to eight years in federal prison for illegally possessing a firearm in Rockford.

TYRONE SMITH, 37, pleaded guilty earlier this year to a charge of illegal firearm possession.  As a previously convicted felon, Smith was prohibited by federal law from possessing a firearm.  Smith admitted in a plea agreement that while in Rockford in September 2022, he possessed a handgun that was loaded with 13 rounds of ammunition, including one in the chamber.

U.S. District Judge Lindsay C. Jenkins imposed the sentence Monday in U.S. District Court in Rockford.  

The sentence was announced by Morris Pasqual, Acting United States Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois, Christopher Amon, Special Agent-in-Charge of the Chicago Field Division of the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms & Explosives, and Carla Redd, Chief of the Rockford Police Department.  The government was represented by Assistant U.S. Attorney Theodora Anderson.

Holding illegal firearm possessors accountable through federal prosecution is a centerpiece of Project Safe Neighborhoods (PSN) – the Department of Justice’s violent crime reduction strategy.  In the Northern District of Illinois, the U.S. Attorney's Office and law enforcement partners have deployed the PSN program to attack a broad range of violent crime issues facing the district, particularly firearm offenses.