Charleston, W.Va. - United States Attorney Booth Goodwin announced that Mark A. Johnson, Jr., 24, of Charleston, West Virginia, was sentenced today in federal court to six years and six months’ imprisonment for being a convicted felon in possession of a firearm. In November of 2013, while on federal supervised release for a prior conviction for being a felon in possession of a firearm, Johnson got into an argument with his girlfriend outside of the Town Center Mall. A construction worker attempted to intervene, and Johnson pulled a handgun and threatened to kill him. Johnson was later arrested and has been in federal custody since December of 2013. In January of 2014, Johnson was sentenced to an additional six months of imprisonment for violating the terms of his supervised release. Today’s sentence imposes an additional six years and six months of imprisonment to be served consecutively to the six month sentence for the supervised release violation. In deciding on the appropriate sentence, the sentencing court considered that Johnson had tried to convince two witnesses to lie for him and to say he did not have a real gun when he threatened the construction worker last November.
This case was brought as part of Project Safe Neighborhoods. Project Safe Neighborhoods is a nationwide commitment to reduce gun crime in the United States by networking existing local programs targeting gun crime. This case was investigated by the Charleston Police Department and the United States Department of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.
Source: U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the United States Attorneys
