A member of a south Seattle street gang, Samuel N. Rezene, 38, was sentenced to four years in federal prison and three years of supervised release for illegal firearm possession. The sentencing took place in U.S. District Court in Seattle.
Acting U.S. Attorney Teal Luthy Miller announced the sentence, highlighting Rezene’s extensive criminal background involving drug trafficking, promoting prostitution, and firearms offenses. At the sentencing hearing, U.S. District Judge James L. Robart said, “As far as I can tell, this defendant wants to be taken out of society…. You don’t get a Glock 9 to protect yourself, you get that to be back in the trade.”
According to prosecutors, Rezene was only 83 days into his federal supervised release when he crashed his parents’ car on Aurora Avenue North in Seattle and fled the scene, leaving behind a firearm. DNA evidence linked him to the weapon left at the crash site. “Less than three months after his release from a 92-month prison sentence, Mr. Rezene again had a firearm, drove dangerously, crashed his car in a high crime area, and fled from police,” Acting U.S. Attorney Miller stated. “The only thing that stops his criminal conduct is time behind prison bars. This sentence is necessary for community safety.”
Rezene pleaded guilty on May 30, 2025. Ballistic analysis tied the recovered firearm not only to several shots fired incidents prior to Rezene’s previous incarceration but also to a September 3, 2023 homicide in Seattle’s Holly Park neighborhood that occurred shortly after his release from prison.
Rezene has been involved with gun violence for over a decade. In both 2011 and 2013 he participated in drug robberies against rival gang members which led to multiple retaliatory shootings targeting him and his property; associates of Rezene responded by attacking businesses linked to rival gangs.
On May 15, 2014, Rezene was shot several times at a Renton gas station while attempting to return fire during an attack; he survived but his assailant remains unidentified. After recovering from those injuries law enforcement observed him firing at another business connected with rival gangs later that year.
He received state custody for related firearms charges and was federally charged and convicted in December 2014; he served a 92-month sentence beginning with his conviction at trial in May 2017.
Rezene has accumulated multiple felony convictions—including for drug trafficking, illegal firearms possession, promoting prostitution and attempting to elude police—making it illegal for him under federal law to possess any firearm.
Assistant United States Attorney Todd Greenberg advocated for the maximum guidelines sentence writing: “The federal firearms statutes exist for the purpose of keeping firearms out of the hands of people like Samuel Rezene. Rezene has lived a reckless and dangerous lifestyle as a gang member and drug dealer. His commission of two drug robberies set off a violent chain of events that ultimately led to him being shot at the Shell station in 2014.”
The case was investigated by the Seattle Police Department with support from the FBI and prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Todd Greenberg.
