BOISE - Brock Tyler Beutler, 23, of Twin Falls, Idaho, pleaded guilty today in United States District Court to a federal indictment charging him with one count of possession of a firearm with an obliterated serial number, U.S. Attorney Wendy J. Olson announced.
According to court documents, officers with the Twin Falls Police Department found a handgun with an obliterated serial number in Beutler’s waistband during a traffic stop on February 5, 2013. When asked about the obliterated serial number on the firearm, Beutler admitted to filing off the serial number so that it could not be traced. Beutler was also in possession of a small amount of methamphetamine.
The charge of possession of a firearm with an obliterated serial number is punishable by up to five years in prison, up to three years of supervised release, and a maximum fine of $250,000. Beutler agreed to forfeit the firearm he unlawfully possessed.
Sentencing is set for November 4, 2013, before U.S. District Judge Edward J. Lodge, at the federal courthouse in Boise.
The case was investigated by the Twin Falls Police Department and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.
The case was prosecuted as part of Idaho’s Project Safe Neighborhoods Program, which seeks to reduce gun violence in Idaho.
Source: U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the United States Attorneys
