26-Year-Old Louisiana Felon on Supervised Release Convicted and Sentenced for Possession of a Firearm

Shreveport, Louisiana –  A 26-year-old Louisiana felon on supervised release for a previous crime has been convicted and sentenced for possession of a firearm.

On Wednesday, February 22, 2023, United States Attorney Brandon B. Brown announced that Charles M. Thomas, 26, of Shreveport, Louisiana, was sentenced for being a convicted felon in possession of a firearm and for violating the terms of his federal supervised release. United States District Judge S. Maurice Hicks, Jr. sentenced Thomas to 46 months (3 years, 10 months) in prison, followed by 3 years of supervised release on the firearms charge.

Thomas was charged with possession of a firearm and ammunition by a convicted felon in March 2022 and pled guilty on August 4, 2022. The charge arises from an incident on March 7, 2022, when Shreveport Police Department officers arrested Thomas for domestic violence. A subsequent investigation by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) resulted in the finding of video evidence of Thomas in possession of a firearm. Agents were aware that Thomas had previously been convicted in the Western District of Louisiana in 2018 for being a convicted felon in possession of a firearm and was on supervised release for that conviction at the time of this arrest for domestic violence. During a check of Thomas’s flat, agents recovered a bag containing.223 and 5.56 caliber ammunition that belonged to Thomas. The ammunition was compatible with the firearm seen in the video being held by Thomas. Agents also discovered the same sweatpants that Thomas was wearing in the video in the apartment. Thomas had a past felony conviction in the Western District of Louisiana for aggravated assault with a firearm (2015) and felon in possession of a firearm (2018).

Thomas was found to be in breach of his federal supervised release, and he was sentenced to 14 months in prison to run consecutively with the previous sentence.

The ATF and the Shreveport Police Department investigated the case, which was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Seth D. Reeg.