POCATELLO - Arriyon Meeks-Ortiz, 33, of Fort Hall, Idaho, pleaded guilty today in United States District Court to possession of an unregistered firearm, U.S. Attorney Wendy J. Olson announced.
According to the plea agreement, on May 15, 2013, Fort Hall Police officers responded to a residence on the Fort Hall Indian Reservation. Meeks-Ortiz was observed to be holding what appeared to be a small bat or club. After being instructed by officers to leave the residence, Meeks-Ortiz tossed the object into a bedroom. Officers subsequently located an Iver Johnson 12-gauge shotgun with a barrel less than 18" in length on the bed in the bedroom. During an interview with law enforcement, Meeks-Ortiz said that he purchased the sawed-off shotgun in its altered condition for $100 and kept it underneath his trailer.
The charge of possessing an unregistered firearm is punishable by up to ten years in prison, a maximum fine of $250,000, and up to three years of supervised release.
Meeks-Ortiz is scheduled to be sentenced on April 22, 2014, before Chief U.S. District Judge B. Lynn Winmill at the federal courthouse in Pocatello.
The case was investigated by the Fort Hall Police Department and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.
Source: U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the United States Attorneys
