Huntington Felon Jonathan Baker Cuffed for Illegal Firearm Possession

Jonathan Baker, 37, of Huntington, West Virginia, is headed to federal prison for nearly five years after being caught with a loaded firearm he wasn’t allowed to touch. Sentenced today to four years and nine months behind bars, Baker admitted he possessed the weapon despite knowing his status as a convicted felon barred him from owning or handling guns.

The arrest unfolded on March 2, 2021, when Huntington Police executed a search warrant at an apartment on 26th Street. Inside, officers found a firearm sitting in plain view on top of a nightstand. Baker didn’t fight it—he confessed on the spot, acknowledging both possession and his awareness of the law he was breaking. His 2011 felony drug conviction in Bibb County, Georgia, had stripped him of any legal right to a firearm.

U.S. Attorney William S. Thompson announced the sentencing, singling out the joint efforts of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) and the Huntington Police Department. Their collaboration, Thompson said, is exactly how violent crime is dismantled—one case, one offender, one illegal gun at a time.

The hammer came down from U.S. District Judge Robert C. Chambers, who handed down the 57-month sentence in federal court. Assistant U.S. Attorney Stephanie S. Taylor prosecuted the case, building on forensic evidence and Baker’s own admissions to secure the conviction without trial.

This case was prosecuted under Project Safe Neighborhoods (PSN), the Department of Justice’s frontline strategy to crush violent crime in high-risk communities. PSN doesn’t just target arrests—it analyzes crime patterns, empowers local agencies, and focuses resources on the most dangerous repeat offenders. Baker’s record and illegal gun made him a textbook PSN target.

Court records, including the original complaint and sentencing memo, are available through PACER under Case No. 3:21-cr-00056. A copy of the official press release is posted on the U.S. Attorney’s Office website for the Southern District of West Virginia.