Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives

PEORIA, Ill. – A Peoria, Illinois, man, Jacobi Turner-Claudin, 29, of the 500 block of West Columbia Terrace, was sentenced on November 10, 2022, to forty months in federal prison for possessing firearm ammunition as a felon. Upon release from imprisonment, Turner-Claudin will serve a three-year term of supervised release.

At the sentencing hearing in front of Senior U.S. District Judge Michael M. Mihm, the government presented evidence that Turner-Claudin was a passenger in a car that fled from Peoria Police on April 21, 2022. The pursuit began on Griswold Street and ended when the car drove into the backyard of a house on North Bourland Avenue. Turner-Claudin fled from the vehicle and was located a short distance away in a dry creek bed. He was in possession of three cell phones, cannabis baggies, and an extended magazine for a firearm. The magazine was loaded with 12 rounds of .45 caliber ammunition. Turner-Claudin told federal agents that he possessed the ammunition due to the possibility of a weapons purchase that day. At the time, Turner-Claudin was prohibited from possessing firearm ammunition due to his prior conviction for a felony offense.

Also during the incident, officers arrested two additional occupants of the car. Officers recovered two .45 caliber firearms during the investigation, each loaded with live ammunition and equipped with drum-style magazines capable of holding 50 rounds of ammunition. Additionally, one of the .45 caliber pistols recovered was equipped with an auto sear “switch” that converts a semi-automatic gun into a fully automatic machine gun.

Turner-Claudin was indicted in May 2022 and entered a plea of guilty in July 2022. He has been in the custody of the U.S. Marshals Service since his arrest.

The statutory penalties for possession of firearm ammunition by a felon are up to 15 years’ imprisonment and up to a $250,000 fine, followed by up to three years of supervised release.

The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and the Illinois State Police, with the assistance of the Peoria Police Department, investigated the case. Assistant U.S. Attorney Ronald L. Hanna represented the government in the prosecution.

This case is part of Project Safe Neighborhoods (PSN), a program bringing together all levels of law enforcement and the communities they serve to reduce violent crime and gun violence, and to make our neighborhoods safer for everyone. On May 26, 2021, the Department launched a violent crime reduction strategy strengthening PSN based on these core principles: fostering trust and legitimacy in our communities, supporting community-based organizations that help prevent violence from occurring in the first place, setting focused and strategic enforcement priorities, and measuring the results.