Department of Justice
For Immediate Release
Meridian Man Sentenced to 27 Months in Prison for Being a Convicted Felon in Possession of a Firearm
Jackson, Miss. – A Meridian man was sentenced today to 27 months in prison for being a convicted felon in possession of a firearm, announced Acting U.S. Attorney Darren LaMarca and Kurt Thielhorn, Special Agent in Charge of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF).
According to court documents, James T. Britain, 51, failed to stop at a traffic safety checkpoint on July 5, 2019. The Lauderdale County Sheriff’s Office conducted the traffic safety checkpoint and pursued Britain after he refused to stop. Britain led the police on a chase before stopping. After Britain was arrested, he admitted to a Sheriff’s Deputy that there was a firearm in his vehicle and that he was a convicted felon. As a convicted felon, it is contrary to federal law for Britain to possess any firearm.
The ATF and the Lauderdale County Sheriff’s Office investigated the case.
Assistant U.S. Attorneys Bert Carraway and Charles W. Kirkham prosecuted the case.
This case is being prosecuted as part of the joint federal, state, and local Project Safe Neighborhoods (PSN) Program, the centerpiece of the Department of Justice’s violent crime reduction efforts. PSN is an evidence-based program proven to be effective at reducing violent crime. Through PSN, a broad spectrum of stakeholders work together to identify the most pressing violent crime problems in the community and develop comprehensive solutions to address them. As part of this strategy, PSN focuses enforcement efforts on the most violent offenders and partners with locally based prevention and reentry programs for lasting reductions in crime.