Felon Charged With Stealing Firearms From Swansea Rural King

Earlier today, Rodney A. Mathes, 48, of St. Louis, Missouri, was arraigned and ordered detained, that is held without bond pending trial, in the United States District Court for the Southern District of Illinois on a two count criminal indictment charging him with Theft of Firearms from a Federal Firearms Licensee and Possession of a Firearm by a Felon, Stephen R. Wigginton, United States Attorney for the Southern District of Illinois, announced.

The indictment charges that on January 19, 2015, Mathes and another individual broke in to Rural King, located at 2801 North Illinois in Swansea, Illinois, and stole sixteen firearms. Mathes is a convicted felon. Mathes faces a statutory minimum sentence of fifteen years, up to an unlimited maximum term of years in federal prison if he is convicted.

Note: An indictment is a procedural way to bring charges against a defendant. A defendant is presumed innocent of those charges until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.

The case was investigated by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives and the Swansea Police Department. The case is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Laura Reppert.