A Georgia man will reportedly go to prison for inadvertently revealing to a local gun shop that he illegally possessed firearms as a convicted felon.
According to a March 2 press release from the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Middle District of Georgia, William Earl Alley, 55, of Cook County, will serve five years in prison after pleading guilty to possession of a firearm as a convicted felon. Alley brought his three weapons to a local gun store for repair and cleaning in June 2019 and, after discovering he was a felon and, by law, not permitted to own firearms, an employee of the store turned the guns in to local law enforcement.
“I want to thank the gun store employee for responsibly contacting law enforcement when approached by a convicted felon in possession of firearms and doing this in a manner that was safe for all involved,” U.S. Attorney Peter Leary said in the release. “The U.S. Attorney’s Office is standing alongside our law enforcement and community partners to do everything within our power to decrease violent crime in our region through the Department of Justice’s Project Safe Neighborhoods program.
"Removing guns from the hands of repeat felons and holding them accountable for their crimes is one piece of a larger strategy to reduce crime,” Leary added.
Alley has a long criminal history with several state felonies, including possession of controlled substances, theft by deception and terroristic threats, according to the DOJ.
