WILMINGTON - United States Attorney Thomas G. Walker announced that MICHAEL WAYNE ROUSE, JR. 29, of Greenville was sentenced yesterday resulting from his earlier guilty plea to a firearm charge. In September, 2013, the defendant pled guilty to being a felon in possession of a firearm. In January, 2013, the defendant was found in possession of a shotgun that had been stolen from a Pitt County residence the previous day.
Senior U.S. District Judge James C. Fox sentenced ROUSE to 17 years and 8 months in prison. ROUSE will also be supervised for 5 years following release. ROUSE was sentenced under the Armed Career Criminal Act. That statute requires that a defendant convicted of being a felon in possession of a firearm be sentenced to at least 15 years in prison without parole if that defendant has at least three prior drug trafficking or violent felony convictions.
This case was part of the Project Safe Neighborhoods (PSN) initiative which encourages federal, state, and local agencies to cooperate in a unified “team effort" against gun crime, targeting repeat offenders who continually plague their communities.
Investigation of this case was conducted by the Pitt County Sheriff’s Office. Assistant United States Attorney John Bennett is prosecuting the case.
Source: U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the United States Attorneys
