Week In Review – Fort Wayne

     Fort Wayne, Indiana — The United States Attorney’s Office announced the following activity in Federal Court:

PLEAS

• Preston R. Craig, 41, of Fort Wayne, Indiana pled guilty to the felony offense of maintaining a drug-involved premise. The magistrate judge is recommending that the district court accept the tendered guilty plea.  Parties have 14 days in which to object to the magistrate judge’s recommendation. This charge was filed as a result of an investigation by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms & Explosives, Drug Enforcement Administration, and the Fort Wayne Police Department.  Sentencing will be set by separate order by the district court.  This case is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Anthony W. Geller.

• Derek C. Whetsel, 43, of Fort Wayne, Indiana pled guilty to the felony offense of selling a firearm to a convicted felon. The magistrate judge is recommending that the district court accept the tendered guilty plea.  Parties have 14 days in which to object to the magistrate judge’s recommendation. This charge was filed as a result of an investigation by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms & Explosives, and the Fort Wayne Police Department.  Sentencing will be set by separate order by the district court.  This case is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Lovita Morris King.

If convicted in court, any specific sentence to be imposed will be determined by the judge after a consideration of federal sentencing statutes and the Federal Sentencing Guidelines.

DISPOSITIONS

• Marcel T. Banks, 26, of Fort Wayne, Indiana, was sentenced to 6 months imprisonment, with 3 years supervised release and to pay $87,000 in restitution after pleading guilty to the felony offense of bank fraud.  According to documents filed in this case, during the course of an investigation, the Internal Revenue Service obtained bank records, interviewed bank representatives and other individuals and discovered that the brother of Marcel Banks, working as a personal banker at a local bank, had become, with Marcel Banks, secondary joint owners to an account that was opened without the knowledge of the customer.  Banks had attempted to withdraw $10,000 from the account and the attempted transaction was captured on bank surveillance camera.  This case was the result of an investigation by the Internal Revenue Service.  This case was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Lovita Morris King.

• Raul Resendiz, 35, of Fort Wayne, Indiana, was sentenced to 46 months with 2 years supervised release after pleading guilty to the felony offense of being a felon in possession of firearm.  According to documents filed in this case, a 911 call came into Fort Wayne Police Department’s dispatch about an individual who had a gun and was in their home threatening to shoot police if they came after him.  Police arrived and apprehended the individual, identified as Resendiz and located an AK 47 assault type rifle within his reach.  Federal agents subsequently learned about the location of another weapon Resendiz had which he kept at his girlfriend’s residence and recovered from that location a Norinco SKS rifle.   Resendiz had a 2011 prior felony conviction in Allen Superior Court for dealing in a counterfeit substance and was, at the time of his arrest on the federal charges, on state probation for the drug offense. This case was the result of an investigation by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms & Explosives, and the Fort Wayne Police Department.  This case was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Tina Nommay.