Sun Prairie Man Sentenced to 4 Years for Illegally Possessing Firearm

MADISON, WIS. – Timothy M. O’Shea, United States Attorney for the Western District of Wisconsin, announced that Curtis White III, 21, Sun Prairie, Wisconsin, was sentenced today by Chief U.S. District Judge James D. Peterson to 4 years in federal prison for possessing a firearm as a convicted felon.  White pleaded guilty to the firearm charge on February 13, 2025.

On September 30, 2024, police in Fitchburg, Wisconsin, received a telephone call from a person who reported that White was in possession of a gun. Officers responded to the caller’s apartment complex in Fitchburg and immediately searched the area around the apartment complex for White. Officers found him a few blocks away.

After he was arrested, White admitted that he possessed a firearm when he approached the caller’s apartment and that his fingerprints would be on the gun. White further stated that he wrapped up the firearm in a sweatshirt and falsely claimed he tossed it in the vicinity of Williamsburg Way and Whitney Way in Fitchburg.

The following day, October 1, 2024, officers reviewed White’s jail calls and heard him provide a person with directions on where to find the firearm.  Based on his directions, officers found a loaded black Sarsilmaz 9mm handgun wrapped in a black sweatshirt in a stairwell in the basement of an apartment building in Fitchburg.

At the time of his offense, White had previously been convicted of eight felony offenses in Dane County, including burglary and bail jumping.

At the sentencing hearing, Judge Peterson stated that White was a very dangerous person who had displayed an “unrelenting pattern” of criminal behavior.  Judge Peterson noted that White made his situation worse by lying to officers about the firearm’s location after he was arrested and recently assaulting two inmates while in jail awaiting sentencing.  Judge Peterson concluded that a 4-year sentence was necessary to protect the public from White’s violent and unpredictable conduct.

This case has been brought as part of Project Safe Neighborhoods (PSN), the U.S. Justice Department’s program to reduce violent crime. The PSN approach emphasizes coordination between state and federal prosecutors and all levels of law enforcement to address gun crime, especially felons illegally possessing firearms and ammunition and violent and drug crimes that involve the use of firearms.

The charge against White was the result of an investigation conducted by the Fitchburg Police Department. The ATF Madison Crime Gun Task Force also assisted with the case. The ATF Madison Crime Gun Task Force consists of federal agents from ATF and Task Force Officers (TFOs) from state and local agencies throughout the Western District of Wisconsin. Assistant U.S. Attorney Aaron Wegner prosecuted the case.