Jermaine Marquize Williams, Automatic Firearm Possession, Minnesota 2025

ST. PAUL, Minn. – A repeat offender has been sentenced to 82 months in prison for firing an automatic weapon into a Saint Paul neighborhood, announced Acting U.S. Attorney Joesph H. Thompson on May 28, 2025.

Jermaine Marquize Williams, 35, of Saint Paul, pleaded guilty to illegally possessing ammunition as a convicted felon. He was sentenced to a total of 82 months’ imprisonment—77 months’ imprisonment on the criminal case and an additional 6 months’ imprisonment consecutive for violating the terms of his federal supervised release.

According to court documents, in August of 2024, Williams fired off multiple rounds from a fully automatic firearm in a densely populated Saint Paul neighborhood, outside a bar just before midnight. Video surveillance depicted Williams firing the machine gun out the driver’s side door of his vehicle before fleeing from the scene in his vehicle.

Police recovered multiple discharged casings from the shooting. Williams has a prior 2019 federal conviction for illegally possessing a firearm as a felon, for which he received 65 months’ imprisonment. Williams had only been on federal supervised release for six months at the time he committed this crime.

Williams was sentenced in U.S. District Court before Judge Paul A. Magnuson. This case is the result of an investigation conducted by Federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms (ATF) and the St. Paul Police Department.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Benjamin Bejar prosecuted the case. The people of St. Paul were left sleeping in their homes while Williams took an automatic firearm and shot it into the neighborhood, Acting U.S. Attorney Joseph H. Thompson said. This conduct was extraordinarily dangerous, utterly brazen, and well-deserving of federal time.

Williams’ sentence includes 77 months’ imprisonment for the criminal case and an additional 6 months’ imprisonment for violating the terms of his federal supervised release. The total sentence is 82 months’ imprisonment, with a start date of [insert date].