Armed Career Criminal, 27, Sentenced to 5 Years for Gun Charge, Alabama 2023

A convicted armed career criminal from Birmingham, Alabama, will spend the next five years behind bars for carrying a firearm in a mall, according to a sentencing handed down in federal court.

24-year-old Brandon Coley, of Birmingham, was caught with a gun in his waistband at a Savannah, Alabama, mall on April 11, 2022. Coley had previously been convicted of multiple felony offenses, including robbery and burglary.

U.S. District Judge L. Scott Coogler sentenced Coley to 60 months in prison and three years of supervised release for being a felon in possession of a firearm. The charge carries a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison.

In another case, 32-year-old Cedric Johnson, of Dothan, Alabama, was sentenced to 10 years in prison for firing shots in a neighborhood. On January 30, 2022, Johnson discharged a firearm in the direction of another individual in a Dothan neighborhood, causing the victim to fear for their safety. Johnson pleaded guilty to discharging a firearm during a crime of violence, a federal charge that can carry a maximum penalty of life in prison.

U.S. District Judge R. Austin Huffaker Jr. imposed the sentence in a hearing held in federal court in Montgomery on March 21, 2023.

The cases were investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Dothan Police Department. Assistant U.S. Attorney David Estes prosecuted the cases.

The sentences were announced by U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Alabama and the Department of Justice’s Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

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