Federal Judge Sentences Rockford Man to More Than Five Years in Prison for Illegally Possessing Firearm in Rockford

ROCKFORD — A federal judge has sentenced a Rockford man to five years and four months in federal prison for illegally possessing a firearm in Rockford, to be followed by three years of supervised release.

U.S. District Judge Iain D. Johnston sentenced JAVIN MASON, 32, to more than five years in prison today. Mason pleaded guilty in November 2022 to a charge of illegal firearms possession. As a previously convicted felon, Mason was prohibited by federal law from possessing firearms. Mason admitted in a plea agreement to possessing firearms that he knew were stolen, and selling them to another individual.

The sentence was announced by John R. Lausch, Jr., United States Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois; Christopher C. Amon, Acting 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 Jessica Maveus.

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, U.S. Attorney Lausch and law enforcement partners have deployed the PSN program to attack a broad range of violent crime issues facing the district, particularly firearm offenses.