CEDAR RAPIDS – An Iowa man who illegally possessed a loaded firearm was sentenced on January 6, 2021, to more than three years in federal prison.
Thomas Anthony Wallace, age 34, from Cedar Rapids, Iowa, received the prison term after an August 19, 2020 guilty plea to one count of possession of a firearm by a prohibited person.
Information disclosed at sentencing showed that on October 14, 2019, Cedar Rapids police officers were searching for Wallace for violating his state probation. They found Wallace in the driver’s seat of a parked Toyota Camry. After smelling marijuana, officers searched Wallace’s car and recovered a loaded firearm and marijuana. Wallace was prohibited from possessing firearms because he was a drug user and had previously been convicted of multiple crimes of domestic violence.
Wallace was sentenced in Cedar Rapids by United States District Court Judge C.J. Williams. He was sentenced to 42 months’ imprisonment, and he must also serve a three-year term of supervised release after the prison term. There is no parole in the federal system. Wallace is being held in the United States Marshal’s custody until he can be transported to a federal prison.
This case was brought as part of Project Safe Neighborhoods (PSN). PSN is 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.
The case was prosecuted by Special Assistant United States Attorney Dillan Edwards and investigated by the Cedar Rapids Police Department.
