Quentin Earl Booth, Gun Charges, Michigan 2023

GRAND RAPIDS, MICHIGAN – Two Lansing-area men, Quentin Earl Booth, 39, and Derrick Smith Jr., 30, were sentenced to prison for possessing an assault rifle and pistol in a convenience store.

According to U.S. Attorney Mark Totten, Booth was sentenced to 71 months in prison and three years’ supervised release, while Smith pleaded guilty in March and was sentenced to 57 months on July 2.

On September 2023, law enforcement responded to a 911 call that Smith walked into a Lansing convenience store carrying an assault rifle, making threats before entering the store. A witness reported hearing one of the defendants say, “Everybody is going to die.”

Booth is a three-time convicted felon who previously served significant time in prison in 2018 for attempted armed robbery and in 2022 for a domestic violence incident. Smith previously served significant prison time for conspiracy to commit robbery in Florida and was convicted in 2021 for carrying a concealed weapon.

“Quentin Booth and Derrick Smith Jr. are career offenders with repeat felony convictions prohibiting them from possessing a firearm,” said ATF Special Agent in Charge James Deir. “During this incident, both men exercised extremely poor judgment, especially Smith aiming and pointing an assault rifle inside and outside of a convenience store in Lansing. In the end, poor choices have consequences. If you use an illegal firearm to threaten and intimidate people in our community – pack a bag. You’re going to go to prison. Our community deserves better from its members, and it will be safer with both men off the streets.”

The cases were investigated by the Michigan State Police and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Jacob S. Metoxen, Austin J. Hakes, and Constance R. Turnbull handled the prosecutions.