Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Marcus Lawrence Weber, 26, of Sacramento, was sentenced today by U.S. District Judge John A. Mendez to five years and 11 months in prison for being a felon in possession of a firearm, U.S. Attorney Phillip A. Talbert announced.

According to court documents, on March 16, 2022, Weber had four pending felony arrest warrants when law enforcement officers located him hiding in Roseville. When officers tried to pull Weber over to arrest him, he led them on a car chase through a populated apartment complex, speeding past multiple vehicles and people. The police eventually surrounded Weber in a cul-de-sac, where he abandoned his car and continued his flight on foot, wearing a black ski mask. He ran past a family with two small children, dropped the firearm, picked it back up, and eventually tossed the firearm in thick brush before being arrested. The firearm, a Ruger 5.7, was loaded with a 20-round extended magazine with one round in the chamber.

Weber possessed that firearm while on the run from a spree of four firearm related felony offenses that he committed within a five-month period. Weber began this crime spree after being only a month and a half on probation from a prior felony drug trafficking offense that involved the discharge of a firearm into his neighbor's apartment.

This case was the product of an investigation by the Sacramento Police Department, the Sacramento County District Attorney’s Office, the Placer County Sheriff’s Office, and the Placer County District Attorney’s Office, the Fresno Police Department, and the Fresno County District Attorney’s Office, with the assistance of the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Safe Streets Task Force and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. Assistant U.S. Attorney Adrian T. Kinsella prosecuted the case.

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 U.S. Department of Justice 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.