Department of Justice
For Immediate Release
Calera Man Sentenced to Nearly 16 Years in Prison as an Armed Career Criminal
BIRMINGHAM – A federal judge today sentenced a Calera man to 15 years and eight months in prison as an armed career criminal, announced Acting U.S. Attorney Robert O. Posey and Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives Assistant Special Agent in Charge David Hyche.
U.S. District Court Judge Virginia Emerson Hopkins sentenced VAUGHN ALEXANDER CROPPER, 29, for possessing a pistol after previously being convicted of a felony.
According to evidence at his April trial, Birmingham police arrested Cropper in the early morning hours of Sept. 25, 2016, in the parking lot of the USA Economy Lodge on Crestwood Boulevard in Irondale. Officers were responding to a complaint of a disturbance involving a man with a gun. The police, who were wearing body cameras, captured video of the defendant reaching into his pocket before officers seized the gun and placed him under arrest.
Cropper has multiple drug-trafficking felonies and qualified as an armed career criminal, thus facing a minimum sentence of 15 years and a maximum sentence of life in prison.
The ATF and Birmingham Police Department investigated the case, which Assistant U.S. Attorney Gregory R. Dimler prosecuted.
###