A felon and drug user who possessed a stolen firearm was sentenced yesterday to more than five years in federal prison.
Derek Hines, age 33, from Cedar Rapids, Iowa, received the prison term after a guilty plea to possessing a firearm as a prohibited person. In a plea agreement, Hines, a convicted felon and user of marijuana and methamphetamine, admitted that he possessed a firearm in Cedar Rapids in January 2017. Cedar Rapids Police Department officers found Hines unconscious in the driver’s seat of a parked vehicle with a loaded handgun and drug paraphernalia. The gun had previously been reported stolen by its owner. In 2003, Hines was convicted in federal court of conspiracy to distribute and possess with intent to distribute cocaine base and marijuana.
Hines was sentenced in Cedar Rapids by United States District Court Judge Linda R. Reade. Hines was sentenced to 63 months’ imprisonment. He must also serve a three-year term of supervised release after the prison term. There is no parole in the federal system. Hines is being held in the United States Marshal’s custody until he can be transported to a federal prison to serve his sentence.
The case was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Lyndie M. Freeman and investigated by the Cedar Rapids Safe Streets Task Force. The task force is composed of representatives from the Federal Bureau of Investigation, United States Marshal Service, and the Cedar Rapids Police Department.
Court file information at https://ecf.iand.uscourts.gov/cgi-bin/login.pl.
The case file number is 17-CR-20.
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Source: U.S. Department of Justice, Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI)
