Department of Justice
For Immediate Release
Fifty-Seven Month Sentence for Convicted Felon in Possession of Gun
DAYTON – John Glen Tidwell, 43, of Dayton was sentenced to 57 months in prison for illegal possession of a firearm.
Carter M. Stewart, United States Attorney for the Southern District of Ohio, Michael Boxler, Special Agent in Charge, Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), and Dayton Police Chief Richard Biehl announced the sentence handed down today by U.S. District Judge Walter H. Rice.
According to court documents, Dayton Police arrested Tidwell on the southeast side of Dayton after receiving a report of shots being fired in the area. Officers saw Tidwell carrying a pistol and ordered him to stop. Tidwell then threw the weapon on the ground. Officers determined that it was a .22 caliber pistol.
Tidwell has a prior criminal record including a 1989 conviction for aggravated burglary in Montgomery County and a 2001 conviction in Madison County for receiving stolen property. Federal law prohibits convicted felons from having firearms.
“The defendant discharged his firearm in a neighborhood,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Andrew Hunt told the court. “This was inherently dangerous and involved conduct more serious than mere possession of the firearm.”
Stewart commended the cooperative investigation by ATF agents and Dayton Police officers, as well as Assistant U.S. Attorney Andrew Hunt, who represented the United States in this case.
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