Eilone Austin Bland, Felon in Possession of Firearms and Body Armor, Alabama 2023

Birmingham Man Sentenced to Prison for Felonious Possession of Firearms and Body Armor

A federal judge has sentenced a Birmingham man to 108 months in prison for the illegal possession of firearms and body armor. U.S. Attorney Prim F. Escalona and Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives Special Agent in Charge Mickey French announced the sentence on Monday.

U.S. District Judge Annemarie Carney Axon sentenced Eilone Austin Bland, 28, of Birmingham, to 108 months in prison on two counts of being a felon in possession of a firearm and one count of being a violent felon in possession of body armor.

Bland pleaded guilty to these charges in January 2021. In June 2020, a federal grand jury indicted Bland for being a felon in possession of a firearm. That charge arose from a March 5, 2019 traffic stop by Birmingham police officers.

During the traffic stop, the officers found a Taurus 9-millimeter pistol in Bland’s pocket. Bland had a 2016 state court conviction for attempted murder, which barred him from possessing firearms.

In July 2020, United States Deputy Marshals arrested Bland at his home and found a .40 caliber Glock pistol and a body armor vest in his bedroom. A superseding indictment was filed charging him for possessing the second pistol and the body armor.

The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives investigated the cases with the assistance of the Birmingham Police Department and the United States Marshals Service. Assistant U.S. Attorney Alan Baty prosecuted.

Source: https://www.justice.gov/usao-ndal/pr/birmingham-man-sentenced-prison-illegal-possession-firearms-and-body-armor