Skip to main content
Press Release

Rockford Man Sentenced To 420 Months In Federal Prison For Possessing Crack Cocaine And A Firearm

For Immediate Release
U.S. Attorney's Office, Northern District of Illinois

ROCKFORD — A Rockford man was sentenced today in federal court to a total of 420 months in federal prison for committing firearms and drug trafficking offenses. DAYTON POKE, 35, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Frederick J. Kapala to serve 360 months’ imprisonment for possessing with intent to distribute crack cocaine and for possessing a firearm as a felon. In addition, the court sentenced Poke to serve a consecutive term of 60 months’ imprisonment for possessing a firearm in furtherance of his drug trafficking crime. After serving his sentence in federal prison, Poke will be placed on 5 years of supervised release. Poke was also ordered to pay a special assessment of $300.

Poke was found guilty of possessing with intent to distribute crack cocaine, possessing a firearm as a felon and possessing a firearm in furtherance of a drug trafficking crime following a two-day jury trial on May 7, 2014. According to the evidence introduced at trial, on July 6, 2011, two Rockford Police Gang Unit detectives stopped a car driven by Poke for a traffic violation after it pulled into a residential driveway on 10tth Avenue in Rockford. During the traffic stop, the detectives searched the car and found a loaded handgun hidden underneath the driver’s seat, and crack cocaine inside the car’s center console. Prior to the stop by police, Poke had been convicted of a crime punishable by a term of imprisonment exceeding one year.

The sentencing was announced by Zachary T. Fardon, United States Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois; Carl J. Vasilko, Special Agent-in-Charge of the Chicago Field Division of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms & Explosives; and Chet Epperson, Chief of the Rockford Police Department.

The government is represented by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Mark T. Karner and Joseph C. Pedersen.

Updated July 23, 2015