Thomas Brooks II, Federal Firearm Possession, Illinois 2022

A 20-year-old man from Rockford has been sentenced to eight years in federal prison for illegally possessing a machine gun.

In a hearing in federal court in Rockford, U.S. District Judge Philip G. Reinhard imposed the sentence on Friday.

Thomas Brooks II pleaded guilty earlier this year to a charge of illegal firearm possession.

As a previously convicted felon, he was prohibited by federal law from possessing firearms.

Brooks admitted in a plea agreement that while in Rockford on November 1, 2021, he illegally possessed a handgun loaded with 17 rounds of ammunition and a “switch” device that modified the firearm to become fully automatic.

U.S. Attorney John R. Lausch, Jr. said that holding illegal firearm possessors accountable through federal prosecution is a centerpiece of Project Safe Neighborhoods (PSN) – the government’s violent crime reduction strategy.

The sentence was announced by U.S. Attorney John R. Lausch, Jr., Kristen de Tineo, Special Agent-in-Charge of the Chicago Field Office of the ATF, and Carla Redd, Chief of the Rockford Police Department.

The government was represented by Special Assistant U.S. Attorney Theodora Anderson, a prosecutor with the Winnebago County State’s Attorney’s Office who is working with the U.S. Attorney’s Office under a federal grant to prosecute certain firearm offenses in federal court.