U.S. Department of Justice

United States Attorney
Middle District of Florida

www.justice.gov/usao/flm

For Immediate Release

January 28, 2010

Jacksonville Felon Sentenced to More Than 16 Years for Possessing Handgun

Jacksonville, FL — U.S. Attorney A. Brian Albritton announces that U.S. District Judge Timothy J. Corrigan yesterday sentenced Keith Laron Brooks (age 37, of Jacksonville) as an armed career criminal to 16 years and eight months in federal prison for being a convicted felon in possession of a firearm. The court also ordered Brooks to forfeit a Hi-Power brand 9 mm pistol and ammunition. A jury had found Brooks guilty on September 18, 2009 after a five-day trial.

According to testimony at trial, on January 16, 2009, members of a Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office Task Force executed a search warrant on a trailer located on McLaurin Road in Jacksonville. The officers found, in a bedroom that contained Brooks’s identification card and mail addressed to him, a 9mm Hi-Point pistol, a broken ammunition magazine, and ammunition. A witness who admitted to having bought crack cocaine from Brooks at that trailer on numerous occasions testified that, in the month before the search warrant was executed, he had seen Brooks shoot a pistol from the back porch and that the pistol had failed after one shot.

This case was investigated by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. It was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Ronald T. Henry.

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