Dallas County Man Receives 27 Month Sentence for Possession of a Firearm After Felony Conviction

 United States Attorney Richard W. Moore of the Southern District of Alabama announced that Clarence Brenson, a 25 year old resident of Selma, Alabama was sentenced to 27 months incarceration for possession of a rifle after being convicted of Rape Second Degree.

On September 19, 2018, Brenson entered a guilty pled and admitted in open court that on June 2, 2018, Selma, AL police officers initiated a traffic stop on a vehicle being driven by a female friend of Brenson’s for failing to yield for an emergency vehicle.  Brenson was in the front passenger seat and two small children were in the back seat.  The officers smelled the strong odor of marijuana and asked the female driver to exit the vehicle.  When she did, she told the officers she had been smoking marijuana.  Officers asked her if they would find marijuana if they searched the vehicle and she said, “No” because she smoked it all.  She gave permission to search the vehicle.  As Brenson exited the front passenger seat officers, observed a Romarm/Cugir, model WSAR-10, 7.62X39 caliber rifle.  The firearm was loaded.  While Brenson was seated, the firearm was between his feet.  Brenson told the officers he did not have identification and gave the officers his social security number.  Brenson also told the officers he was a registered sex offender.  A search of the vehicle yielded a small amount of marijuana and spent shell casings from guns other than the rifle Brenson possessed. 

At that time, Brenson had been convicted of a felony, Rape 2nd, on June 13, 2016 in the Circuit Court of Dallas County, Alabama, case number CC-2013-000238,
Officers of the Selma, Alabama Police Department along with special agents of the Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco Firearms and Explosives investigated the case and brought it to the U. S. Attorney=s Office for prosecution.  The prosecutor assigned to the case is Assistant United States Attorney, Gina S. Vann.