Michael Jeffrey Sanders, 27, of Boise, Idaho, is headed to federal prison for 58 months after being caught twice with illegal firearms — one a sawed-off shotgun tucked under his driver’s seat, the other a loaded 9mm handgun with a scratched-out serial number stashed beneath where he sat as a passenger.
U.S. Attorney Bart M. Davis confirmed the sentence handed down today in U.S. District Court, where Judge David C. Nye also slapped Sanders with three years of supervised release and ordered the forfeiture of the weapons. Sanders pleaded guilty on November 7, 2017, to a single count of unlawful possession of a firearm — a crime he wasn’t legally allowed to commit.
The first incident dates to January 19, 2017, when Boise Police pulled Sanders over for a routine traffic stop. Officers found a short-barreled shotgun wrapped in a shirt in the back seat, positioned under the driver’s side. Sanders admitted he’d handled the weapon and placed it there. The barrel measured under 18 inches — a federal no-go without proper registration, which Sanders didn’t have.
Then came an earlier brush with law enforcement on June 24, 2016. Police stopped a vehicle Sanders was riding in for speeding. Under his passenger seat: a loaded Sig Sauer P232 9mm handgun, serial number obliterated. Inside a backpack in the car: used syringes, baggies, a digital scale, Q-tips, and hollow point ammo — all the hallmarks of a drug setup. Sanders claimed possession of the firearm, not the drugs.
But the deal-breaker was his record. On May 16, 2014, Sanders was convicted of possession of a controlled substance — a felony-level offense punishable by more than a year in prison. That conviction stripped him of any right to own or carry firearms, making every trigger he touched after that a federal crime.
The case was built by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and the Boise Police Department, and prosecuted under Project Safe Neighborhoods — a DOJ-led initiative revived by Attorney General Jeff Sessions to target violent offenders and illegal gun possession. The message is clear: if you’re a felon with a firearm, federal time is coming.
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Key Facts
- State: Idaho
- Agency: DOJ USAO
- Category: Weapons
- Source: Official Source ↗
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