Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives

GREENEVILLE Tenn. – On February 8, 2021, Lyle Vernon Tarlton, 30, of Telford, was sentenced by the Honorable J. Ronnie Greer, in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Tennessee at Greeneville.

Tarlton plead guilty to possessing a firearm after having been convicted of an offense punishable by imprisonment exceeding one year. Tarlton was sentenced to 63 month’s imprisonment followed by three years on supervised release.

On August 13, 2019, deputies with the Washington County Sheriff’s Office found Tarlton asleep in a vehicle parked on the side of a road in Telford, Tennessee. Tarlton, who was sitting in the driver’s seat with the keys in the ignition, was asked to step out of the vehicle. Deputies observed a short barrel shotgun laying between the driver’s seat and the driver’s door. Tarlton, who had previously been convicted of a felony, was prohibited from possession of a firearm. Additionally, it is a violation of federal law to possess a shotgun with a barrel shorter than 18 inches that has not been registered in the National Firearms Registration and Transfer Record.

The criminal indictment was the result of a joint investigation by the Washington County Sheriff’s Office and Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

Assistant United States Attorney J. Gregory Bowman represented the United States.

This case was brought as part of Project Safe Neighborhoods (PSN), a comprehensive national strategy that creates local partnerships with law enforcement agencies to effectively enforce existing gun laws. It provides more options to prosecutors, allowing them to utilize local, state, and federal laws to ensure that criminals who commit gun crime face tough sentences. PSN gives each federal district the flexibility it needs to focus on individual challenges that a specific community faces.

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