OKLAHOMA CITY - JAMES CORNELIUS CHRISTIAN, 40, of Oklahoma City, was sentenced to 235 months in federal prison for being a felon in possession of a firearm, announced Robert J. Troester, Acting United States Attorney for the Western District of Oklahoma.
On Oct. 11, 2017, a jury found Christian guilty of possessing a Ruger, model LCP,.380 caliber pistol after he had previously been convicted of a felony. He was acquitted on a second count of being a felon in possession of a firearm.
At a sentencing hearing today, United States District Judge David L. Russell took into consideration Christian’s multiple prior serious drug offenses, which qualified Christian as an armed career criminal under federal law. As an armed career criminal, he was subject to a mandatory minimum sentence of 15 years, or 180 months.
In addition to the 235-month sentence, Judge Russell ordered Christian to serve three years of supervised release after his release from prison.
This case is the result of an investigation conducted by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives and was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Jacquelyn M. Hutzell and David Petermann. It is part of Project Safe Neighborhoods, a Department of Justice program to reduce violent crime. In October 2017, Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced the reinvigoration of Project Safe Neighborhoods and directed U.S. Attorney’s Offices to develop crime-reduction strategies that incorporate lessons federal law enforcement has learned since the program’s launch in 2001.
Source: U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the United States Attorneys
