CEDAR RAPIDS – A Chicago heroin dealer tooling around Iowa with kids brought his loaded gun and a skunky snack, but cops ended his joyride and have delivered him to a jail cell for the next five years.
Johnny Martell Brown (pictured at top), age 31, from Chicago, Illinois, received the prison term after an October 20, 2023 guilty plea to possessing a firearm as a felon and drug user.
In a plea agreement, Brown admitted that, on December 16, 2022, in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, law enforcement officers stopped a car that he was driving. Two minor children were also in the car. Officers searched the car and found a loaded stolen firearm and marijuana. In Brown’s underwear, officers discovered a Cheetos bag that contained marijuana. Brown admitted that he regularly smoked marijuana. He also has felony convictions for conspiracy to distribute heroin and possessing a controlled substance.
Brown was sentenced in Cedar Rapids by United States District Court Chief Judge C.J. Williams. Brown was sentenced to 57 months’ imprisonment and must also serve a three-year term of supervised release after the prison term. There is no parole in the federal system. Brown is being held in the United States Marshal’s custody until he can be transported to a federal prison.
The case was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Devra T. Hake and investigated by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms & Explosives and the Cedar Rapids Police Department.
