ASHEVILLE, N.C. - U.S. Attorney Jill Westmoreland Rose announced that a Buncombe County man convicted of possession of a firearm by a convicted felon was sentenced today in Asheville by U.S. District Judge Martin Reidinger. Jeremy Scott Powell, 31, of Leicester, N.C. was ordered to serve 63 months in prison, followed by three years of supervised release upon completion of the prison term.
U.S. Attorney Rose is joined in making today’s announcement by C.J. Hyman, Special Agent in Charge of the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), Charlotte Field Division and Sheriff Van Duncan, of the Buncombe County Sheriff’s Office.
According to filed court documents and statements made in court, on September 4, 2014, law enforcement conducted a traffic stop of the car Powell was driving, after it was determined that the license plate of Powell’s car belonged to another vehicle. Following a search of the vehicle, court records show that law enforcement recovered a semi-automatic handgun, which was loaded with 13 rounds of ammunition. According to documents filed in the case, Powell is prohibited from possessing a firearm, stemming from his 2008 North Carolina conviction of two counts of drug trafficking and one count of possession of a firearm by a felon.
Powell has been in federal custody since September 2014. He will be transferred to the custody of the Federal Bureau of Prisons upon designation of a federal facility. All federal sentences are served without the possibility of parole.
The investigation was handled by ATF and the Buncombe County Sheriff’s Office. The case was prosecuted by the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Asheville.
Source: U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the United States Attorneys
