James Albert Mayo III, Felon in Ammunition Possession, Louisiana 2024

James Albert Mayo III, 39, of Shreveport, Louisiana, is headed to federal prison after being sentenced to 51 months for being a convicted felon in possession of ammunition. U.S. District Judge Elizabeth Foote handed down the sentence today, followed by 3 years of supervised release, capping a case rooted in a routine drug complaint that uncovered a trail of stolen firepower and criminal history.

The trouble began in a quiet Shreveport neighborhood when law enforcement responded to reports of people smoking marijuana in a parked vehicle. Officers arrived to find Mayo inside the car with multiple others. What started as a low-level drug inquiry quickly escalated when agents discovered a round of 9mm ammunition in Mayo’s pocket—matching a round linked to a stolen Smith & Wesson pistol found in the same vehicle.

Mayo was convicted by a federal jury on November 13, 2019, after a two-day trial. Jurors did not find sufficient evidence to convict him of possessing the stolen firearm—ownership of which the front seat passenger claimed and previously pleaded guilty to in Caddo District Court. But the jury unanimously found beyond a reasonable doubt that Mayo possessed the live round of ammunition, a federal offense due to his status as a convicted felon.

At sentencing, however, Judge Foote rejected the passenger’s claim, deeming his testimony not credible. She determined that Mayo had, in fact, possessed the stolen Smith & Wesson pistol—recovered from Killeen, Texas—and used that finding to justify the 51-month sentence under federal sentencing guidelines. The gun’s origins added a layer of interstate criminality to the case.

Mayo’s criminal record is anchored by three prior felony convictions in Caddo Parish: attempted distribution of narcotics (2005), possession of narcotics (2011), and another possession charge (2013). Federal law bars individuals with felony convictions from possessing firearms or ammunition—making Mayo’s pocketed live round a serious federal crime, not a technicality.

The investigation was carried out by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) and the Caddo-Shreveport Mid-Level Drug Unit. Assistant U.S. Attorney Brandon B. Brown prosecuted the case, which was prosecuted as part of Project Safe Neighborhoods (PSN), the DOJ’s nationwide initiative to dismantle violent crime networks and lock up repeat offenders. This case, like so many in Shreveport, proves that even a single bullet can carry a lifetime of consequences.

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