Ravious Darnell Thomas Gets 17+ Years for Gun, Drug Crimes

BATON ROUGE, LA — A record-heavy felon is headed back behind bars for more than 17 years after being caught with a loaded .22 Magnum and crack cocaine in Denham Springs. Ravious Darnell Thomas, 49, was sentenced to a total of 215 months in federal prison, marking the latest chapter in a long criminal spiral that shows no mercy under federal sentencing law.

On July 28, 2015, Denham Springs police arrested Thomas during a routine stop that quickly turned serious. A search of his SUV uncovered a loaded .22 Magnum pistol and a quantity of crack cocaine. Federal records show Thomas had prior felony convictions—both state and federal—that made it illegal for him to possess any firearm, let alone one loaded and within reach.

U.S. District Court Judge John W. deGravelles handed down an 180-month sentence for the federal charges: possession of a firearm by a convicted felon and possession of crack cocaine. But the punishment didn’t stop there. At the time of the arrest, Thomas was already on federal supervised release stemming from a prior narcotics conviction—making his July 2015 bust a direct breach of court-ordered terms.

The judge slapped on an additional 35 months for violating supervised release, bringing Thomas’s total federal prison time to 215 months—just over 17 years and 11 months. No early outs. No leniency. Just steel bars and a docket number.

“One of my highest priorities has been the enforcement of our gun and drug laws,” said U.S. Attorney Walt Green. “Today’s long jail sentence removes an armed career criminal from our streets.” The message is clear: pull a trigger or push drugs while on federal watch, and the system will come down hard.

The case was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Lyman E. Thornton III and investigated by the Denham Springs Police Department and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF). Thomas now returns to federal custody, where he’ll remain until at least the mid-2030s—if not longer.