Iowa felon sentenced to federal prison for possessing ammunition

CEDAR RAPIDS – Police found a convicted Iowa felon with a loaded antique firearm while on escape status from the Waterloo Residential Correctional Facility, leading to more than two years’ in federal prison.

Mopreme Vychon Todd-Harris, age 21, from Hiawatha, Iowa, received the prison sentence after a February 7, 2020 guilty plea to being a felon in possession of ammunition. In 2017, Todd-Harris was convicted of burglary 3rd degree, a felony conviction. The conviction prohibited him from legally possessing a firearm or ammunition.

Information disclosed at sentencing and in his plea agreement showed that on July 21, 2019, Waterloo police officers observed Todd-Harris, who officers knew to have an outstanding warrant for his arrest, in public with a group of other people. Officers approached Todd-Harris and saw a gun in his right hand. The gun was loaded with live rounds of ammunition, though the gun was later determined to be an antique. The warrant for Todd-Harris’s arrest was because he had previously escaped from the Waterloo Residential Correctional Facility.

Todd-Harris was sentenced in Cedar Rapids by United States District Court Judge C.J. Williams. Todd-Harris was sentenced to 27 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 Special Assistant United States Attorney Alexander Geocaris and investigated by the Waterloo Police Department and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives.