CEDAR RAPIDS – A Dubuque man who unlawfully possessed a loaded gun while a drug user was sentenced today to five years in prison.
Anthony Vincenzo Smith, age 27, from Dubuque, Iowa, received the prison sentence after an October 15, 2019 guilty plea to possession of a firearm by a drug user.
Information disclosed at sentencing and in a plea agreement showed that on May 19, 2019, Dubuque police officers were dispatched to a residence to investigate an assault. Officers spoke with a woman who Smith had punched in the head several times. The woman told officers that Smith had guns and drugs with him. Officers located Smith at a nearby hotel. They searched Smith’s hotel room and found a digital scale, a loaded magazine containing seven rounds of ammunition, a loaded Taurus PT709 handgun, $815 in United States currency, and 25.88 grams of cocaine. The gun had previously been reported stolen. Smith was under the influence of marijuana and cocaine at the time. He also admitted that he intended to distribute some of the cocaine in his possession. Smith has a prior felony drug conviction from 2014.
Smith was sentenced in Cedar Rapids by United States District Court Judge C.J. Williams. Smith was sentenced to 60 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.
The case was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Ashley Corkery and investigated by the Dubuque Drug Task Force, the Federal Bureau of Investigations, and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives.
