Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives

STATESVILLE, N.C. – U.S. District Judge Frank D. Whitney has sentenced Jackson Suddreth Tyler, 22, of Troutman, N.C. to 228 months in prison, announced R. Andrew Murray, U.S. Attorney for the Western District of North Carolina. Judge Whitney also ordered Tyler to serve six years under court supervision after he is released from prison.

U.S. Attorney Murray is joined in making today’s announcement by Wayne Dixie Special Agent in Charge of the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), Charlotte Field Division and Sheriff Darren Campbell of the Iredell County Sheriff’s Office.

According to filed court documents and court proceedings, on January 24, 2017, the Iredell County Sheriff’s Office received a 911 call for service at a residence located in Troutman. Upon arrival at the residence, law enforcement found Tyler and a deceased male who had sustained a gunshot wound. Law enforcement determined that approximately an hour had passed before the 911 call was made in regards to the shooting. 

According to court records, Tyler told law enforcement he had not shot the victim. Tyler indicated that the victim had entered the residence armed with a pistol and wearing a mask, and that the victim had shot himself.  Contrary to Tyler’s statement about the victim shooting himself, law enforcement determined that a different firearm was used to kill the deceased. 

While executing a search warrant at the residence, law enforcement determined that Tyler was manufacturing ecstacy pills and firearms. Law enforcement seized from the residence large capacity magazines and 33 firearms, two of which were stolen and one with an obliterated serial number, gun parts, and 6,051 rounds of ammunition, as well as items used in manufacturing MDMA (ecstacy) pills, and more than two kilograms of MDMA pills. Law enforcement also located underneath the victim  a firearm and an empty magazine. Also, according to court records, law enforcement determined that during the delay between the time the deceased was shot and 911 was called, the scene had been disturbed and items were removed from the home. 

Tyler pleaded guilty in October 2017 to possession with intent to distribute MDMA and discharging a firearm during and in furtherance to a drug trafficking crime.

In sentencing Tyler, Judge Whitney said that Tyler was involved in a “deadly combination of criminal events,” noting the dangerousness of guns and drugs.

U.S. Attorney Murray thanked the ATF and the Iredell County Sheriff’s Office for their investigation of the case.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Jennifer Dillon of the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Charlotte prosecuted the case.