East St. Louis Man Sentenced to Prison for Firearm Offenses

Donald S. Boyce, United States Attorney for the Southern District of Illinois, announced that on January 11, 2018, Leon Johnson, 28, of Granite City, Illinois, was sentenced after being convicted of one count of felon in possession of a firearm. At the time of his arrest, Johnson was on supervised release in a prior federal case involving a conviction for felon in possession of a firearm. A petition to revoke his supervised release was filed in that case after Johnson’s arrest. Pursuant to a sentencing agreement, the Honorable Nancy J. Rosenstengel sentenced Johnson to a total of 37 months in federal prison on the new conviction as well as the supervised release revocation case. Johnson’s prison sentence is to be followed by three years of supervised release and a $100 special assessment. Johnson also agreed to forfeit the illegal firearm that he possessed.

Court proceedings revealed that on November 9, 2016, East St. Louis police officers responded to a call regarding shots being fired in the Norman E. Owens Housing Projects. Officers discovered Johnson sitting on a park bench with a loaded pistol on the ground at his feet. A Housing Authority officer identified Johnson as the individual who had been firing the pistol in the air moments earlier.

The case was investigated by the East St. Louis Police Department and prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Christopher Hoell.