CHARLESTON, W.Va. - A Charleston man was sentenced to federal prison for a gun crime, according to United States Attorney Mike Stuart. Harry Lee Nguyen, 24, was sentenced to 24 months in prison for being a felon in possession of a firearm.
On Jan. 10, 2020, Nguyen pled guilty to being a felon in possession of a firearm based on his arrest by Charleston Police detectives on Aug. 3, 2019. He admitted that he had a.40 caliber Smith & Wesson handgun in his possession and threw the gun into a yard of a residence on Charleston’s West Side. Nguyen has two prior felony convictions which prohibit him from having a weapon - one on Feb. 1, 2016 for wanton endangerment with a firearm where he twice shot at a woman with a handgun and missed, and another on May 1, 2017 for malicious wounding where he punched and kicked a victim breaking the victim’s nose and ribs.
The Charleston Police Department investigated the case. United States District Judge Irene C. Berger imposed the sentence. Assistant United States Attorney Steven Loew handled the prosecution.
This case was prosecuted as part of the Project Safe Neighborhoods (PSN) program, the centerpiece of the Department of Justice’s violent crime reduction efforts. PSN is an evidence-based program proven to be effective at reducing violent crime. Through PSN, a broad spectrum of stakeholders work together to identify the most pressing violent crime problems in the community and develop comprehensive solutions to address them. As part of this strategy, PSN focuses enforcement efforts on the most violent offenders and partners with locally-based prevention and reentry programs for lasting reductions in crime.
A copy of this press release is located on the website of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of West Virginia. Related court documents and information can be found on PACER by searching for Case No. 2:19-cr-00275.
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Source: U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the United States Attorneys
